UNIVERSITY  OF  CAL 


'MAKERS  OF  AMERICA" 


LIFE 


OF 


FRANCIS  HIGGINSON 


FIRST  MINISTER  IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS 

BAY  COLONY,  AND  AUTHOR  OF  " NEW 

ENGLAND'S  PLANTATION"  (1630) 


BY 


THOMAS  WENTWORTH   HIGGINSON 


NEW   YORK 

DODD,   MEAD,   AND   COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


LIBRARY 

U3BVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


Copyright,  1891, 
BY  DODD,  MEAD,  AND  Co. 


All  rights  reserved. 


SBtotbersttg 

JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON,  CAMBRIDGE. 


CONTENTS. 


I.     AN    ENGLISH    PARSONAGE   IN   THE    SIX- 
TEENTH  CENTURY i 

II.     AN    ENGLISH    UNIVERSITY  THREE   CEN- 
TURIES AGO .  .  8 

III.  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  A  PURITAN  DIVINE  15 

IV.  MIGRATION  TO  THE  NEW  WORLD  ...  30 
V.    "GENERALL  CONSIDERATIONS"  FOR  THE 

PLANTING  OF  NEW  ENGLAND    ...  38 
VI.     A    SEA-VOYAGE    IN    THE    SEVENTEENTH 

CENTURY 47 

VII.     A  LETTER  SENT  HOME   .     .    ..     ....  71 

VIII.     THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  ORDINATION     .     .  76 

IX     "NEW  ENGLAND'S  PLANTATION"    .    .    .  89 

X.    THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  CONFORMISTS     .     .  109 

XL     A  SALEM  PARSONAGE ,  124 

XII.    FRANCIS  HIGGINSON'S  HOUSEHOLD      .    .  134 

INDEX 153 


LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 


i. 

AN  ENGLISH   PARSONAGE   IN   THE   SIX- 
TEENTH  CENTURY. 

When  a  modern  American  makes  a  pilgrimage,  as  I  have  done,  to 
the  English  village  church  at  whose  altars  his  ancestors  once  ministered, 
he  brings  away  a  feeling  of  renewed  wonder  at  the  depth  of  conviction 
which  led  the  Puritan  clergy  to  forsake  their  early  homes.  The  exqui- 
sitely peaceful  features  of  the  English  rural  landscape,  —  the  old  Nor- 
man church,  half  ruined,  and  in  this  particular  case  restored  by  aid  of 
the  American  descendants  of  that  high-minded  emigrant ;  the  old  burial- 
ground  that  surrounds  it,  a  haunt  of  such  peace  as  to  make  death  seem 
doubly  restful ;  the  ancestral  oaks ;  the  rooks  that  soar  above  them  ; 
the  flocks  of  sheep  drifting  noiselessly  among  the  ancient  gravestones,  — 
all  speak  of  such  tranquillity  as  the  eager  American  must  cross  the 
Atlantic  to  obtain.  .  .  .  What  love  of  their  convictions,  what  devotion 
to  their  own  faith,  must  have  been  needed  to  drive  the  educated  Puri- 
tan clergymen  from  such  delicious  retreats  to  encounter  the  ocean,  the 
forest,  and  the  Indians  I  —  T.  W.  HIGGINSON  :  A  Larger  History  of 
the  United  States. 

COTTON  MATHER,  writing  in  his  "  Magnalia  "  the 
mempirs  of  more  than  thirty  of  the  founders  of  New 
England,  places  at  their  head  the  name  of  Francis 
Higginson.  After  a  prolonged  prelude  of  quaint 
learning  as  to  the  scriptural  Noah  and  the  classical 
Janus,  he  proceeds  to  twine  their  laurels  together,  and 


2  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

to  lay  them  on  the  modest  brow  of  the  subject  of  his 
discourse,  whom  he  places  "first  in  a  catalogue  of 
heroes."  "  Without  pursuing  these  curiosities  any  fur- 
ther," he  says,  "  I  will  now  lay  before  my  reader  the 
story  of  that  worthy  man ;  who,  when  't  is  considered 
that  he  crossed  the  sea  with  a  renowned  colony,  and 
that  having  seen  an  old  world  in  Europe,  where  a 
flood  of  iniquity  and  calamity  carried  all  before  it, 
he  also  saw  a  new  world  in  America  ;  where  he  ap- 
pears the  first  in  a  catalogue  of  heroes,  and  where 
he  and  his  people  were  admitted  into  the  covenant 
of  God ;  whereupon  a  hedge  of  piety  and  sanctity  con- 
tinued about  that  people  as  long  as  he  lived ;  may 
therefore  be  called  the  Noah  or  Janus  of  New  Eng- 
land. This  was  Mr.  Francis  Higginson"  * 

Thus  far  Cotton  Mather ;  and  in  the  same  strain  of 
comparison  a  later  American  historian  has  written : 
"Among  the  Argonauts  of  the  first  decade  of  New 
England,  there  was  perhaps  no  braver  or  more  exqui- 
site spirit  than  Francis  Higginson."  a 

Francis  Higginson  came  of  what  may  fairly  be 
called,  in  the  very  best  sense,  a  gentle  lineage ;  for 
his  paternal  grandmother,  Joane  Higginson,  dying  a 
widow  in  the  sixteenth  century,  bequeathed  £*]  a 
year  to  the  poor  of  Berkeswell,  co.  Warwick,  Eng- 
land. This  fact  is  known  by  its  being  mentioned  in 
the  will  of  Joane  Higginson' s  son,  Thomas  Higginson 
of  Berkeswell,  yeoman,  which  will  was  dated  Nov.  29, 

1  Magnalia  Christi  Americana,  ed.  1820,  i.  322. 

2  Tyler,  History  of  American  Literature,  i.  166. 


AN  ENGLISH  PARSONAGE.  3 

1573,  and  proved  Feb.  10,  1574.  Joane  Higgin- 
son's  death  must  therefore  have  occurred  as  early  as 
1573,  and  probably  much  earlier;  and  the  sum  be- 
queathed 'by  her  would  now,  allowing  for  the  dif- 
ference in  the  value  of  money,  be  worth  ^70 
($350)  annually.  She  is  probably  the  earliest  per- 
son of  the  name  to  whom  the  present  English  and 
American  families  of  Higginson  can  trace  back  their 
origin;  but  they  may  well  be  contented.  A  pious 
widow,  thrifty  enough  to  have  this  sum  to  bequeath, 
and  generous  enough,  after  providing  for  her  own 
children,  to  leave  it  to  the  poor,  is  surely  a  satisfac- 
factory  fountain-head  for  any  family ;  nor  has  the  spirit 
she  manifested  ever  been  wholly  wanting  among 
her  descendants  during  more  than  three  hundred 
years. 

Thomas  Higginson  of  Berkeswell,  the  son  of  Joane, 
left  legacies  to  his  sons  Robert,  Thomas,  and  George ; 
to  his  daughters  Joyce,  Dorothy,  Ursula,  and  Elizabeth. 
He  also  left  legacies  to  his  brothers  Nicholas  and  Mr. 
John  Higginson.  The  prefix  Mr.  or  Magister  was  at 
that  period  almost  wholly  confined  to  persons  in  holy 
orders,  and  this  makes  it  practically  certain  that  this 
brother  was  a  clergyman.  The  only  English  clergy- 
man bearing  these  names  at  that  period,  as  appears 
from  the  records  of  the  two  universities  Oxford  and 
Cambridge,  was  the  Rev.  John  Higginson,  who  was 
of  Jesus  College,  Cambridge,  B.A.  1564-5  and  M.A. 
1568.  He  was  instituted  to  the  Perpetual  Vicar- 
age of  Claybrooke,  Jan.  23,  1571-2,  as  appears  by 


4  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

the  Institution  Books  at  the  Public  Record  Office  in 
London.1 

It  appears,  from  Nichols's  History  of  Leicestershire, 
that  the  Rev.  John  Higginson  was  the  vicar  of  the 
parish  of  Claybrooke,  beginning  in  1571,  and  that 
he  was  living  and  doing  duty  in  1623.  As  his  suc- 
cessor was  not  in  office  before  1624,  he  may  have 
continued  until  that  year.  There  is  a  tradition  in  the 
Mario w  (England)  branch  of  the  family,  that  this 
venerable  clergyman,  from  whom  they  also  are  de- 
scended, lived  and  did  his  duty  as  a  clergyman  till  the 
age  of  one  hundred  and  four,  and  was  then  drowned 
by  the  sudden  rising  of  a  brook  as  he  was  returning 
from  church.  The  above  dates  would  indicate  that 
John  Higginson  was  certainly  vicar  for  fifty-two  years, 
and  possibly  for  a  yet  longer  period. 

Very  old  records  preserved  in  the  American  branch 
of  the  family  give  the  following  quaint  and  suggestive 
list  of  the  children  of  the  Rev.  John  Higginson,  of 
Claybrooke,  Leicester :  — 

"  i.   John,  a  gentleman  that  kept  high  company. 

"2.  Francis  (the  first  Minister  of  Salem,  N.  E.). 

"3.  Nathaniel,  he  was  owner  of  a  castle  in  Ireland, 
but  lost  in  the  Rebellion. 

"  4.  Nicholas,  he  was  father  of  Henry  the  Goldsmith 
of  Liverpool. 

"5.    William. 

"  And  four  (4)  daughters,  married  to  Andrews,  Coleman, 
Gilbert,  and  Perkins." 

1  Col.  J.  L.  Chester,  MS. 

2  Vol.  iv.  pp.  112,  114. 


AN  ENGLISH  PARSONAGE.  5 

It  is  farther  known  that  this  eldest  son,  the  "  gentle- 
man that  kept  high  company,"  was  a  freeholder  in 
the  parish  of  Leire,  adjoining  that  of  Claybrooke,1 
and  that  in  the  tower  of  the  church  at  Claybrooke  — 
this  tower  being  supposed  to  have  been  erected  in 
1614  —  that  date  is  twice  inscribed  on  the  walls,  with 
the  name  of  Nicholas  Higginson  appended.2  Two 
brothers  of  Francis  Higginson  are  thus  identified ;  but 
the  diligent  researches  of  Colonel  Chester  have  failed 
to  find  any  record  of  the  will  of  their  father,  from 
which  additional  information  might  doubtless  have 
been  obtained.  He  probably  left  none ;  at  any  rate, 
none  was  ever  proved  at  London,  Lincoln,  or  Lich- 
field,  the  only  three  registries  where  one  should  have 
been  proved.  The  early  registers  of  Claybrooke  have 
been  lost,  so  that  there  is  no  record  of  the  baptisms 
of  his  children;  nor  did  the  transcripts  in  the  dio- 
cesan registry  at  Lincoln  begin  till  1598,  nor  are 
those  preserved.  None  of  the  wills  of  his  children 
are  in  London,  and  the  only  clew  afforded  by  any 
will  is  in  the  case  of  the  youngest  daughter,  Elizabeth. 
She  married  John  Perkins,  of  Anstey,  co.  Warwick, 
Gentleman;  and  his  will,  dated  April  i,  1618,  was 
proved  by  her  in  June  following.  He  left  ^10  to  his 
brother-in-law  John  Higginson  —  the  "  gentleman 
who  kept  high  company" — and  his  wife ;  and  five 
marks  to  each  of  his  children. 


1  Nichols's  Leicestershire,  iv.  242. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  107. 


6  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

We  have  thus  some  direct  traces  of  three  of  Francis 
Higginson's  brothers  and  sisters,  but  the  rest  remain 
names  only.  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  more  of 
him  who  owned  an  Irish  castle,  and  of  him  who  began 
by  scratching  his  name  on  Claybrooke  Church  and 
was  afterward  the  progenitor  of  Henry  the  Goldsmith ; 
but  it  is  not  likely  that  we  ever  shall  know  it.  Francis 
Higginson  was  probably  born  in  1587-8,  and  was, 
like  his  father,  of  Jesus  College,  Cambridge,  taking 
his  B.A.  degree  in  1609-10,  and  that  of  M.A.  in 
1613.  Nothing  further  appears  in  regard  to  him  on 
the  records  of  Jesus  College,  —  records  which  at  that 
period  were  very  scanty.  A  letter  from  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Cowie,  Master  of  Jesus  College,  to  Colonel  Chester 
says :  "  The  Registers  of  this  College,  in  which  the 
names  of  the  several  students  and  particulars  of  their 
parentage  and  birthplaces  are  generally  recorded,  do 
not  go  further  back  than  1619.  Before  that  date 
their  surnames  are  merely  recorded,  not  often  their 
Christian  names,  much  less  that  of  their  parents  and 
birthplaces.  I  regret,  therefore,  that  I  cannot  help 
you  further  in  the  matter  of  Francis  Higginson.'* 
This  corresponds  with  what  was  told  me  verbally 
at  Cambridge  (England)  in  1872,  and  it  is  probable 
that  no  further  information  is  to  be  obtained.  Ameri- 
can authorities  have  variously  assigned  Francis  Hig- 
ginson to  St.  John's  College,  to  Emanuel  College,  and 
to  Jesus  College ;  but  it  was  left  to  that  unwearied 
antiquary,  Colonel  Chester,  to  determine  finally  the 
fact  that  he  took  both  his  degrees  at  the  same  col- 


AN  ENGLISH  PARSONAGE.  7 

lege,  and  that  college  his  father's.  What  his  precise 
life  at  the  University  may  have  been  we  do  not  know 
directly ;  but  enough  is  known  of  the  time  and  place 
for  us  to  conjecture,  with  some  degree  of  certainty, 
what  it  must  have  been. 


LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 


II. 

AN   ENGLISH   UNIVERSITY  THREE   CEN- 
TURIES  AGO. 

Towards  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  old  learning  began 
to  be  left,  in  the  University,  and  a  better  succeeded  in  the  room  thereof. 
Hitherto  Cambridge  had  given  suck  with  but  one  breast,  teaching  Arts 
only  without  languages.  ...  But  now  the  students  began  to  make 
sallies  into  the  learned  languages,  which  the  industry  of  the  next  age 
did  completely  conquer.  —  FULLER  :  History  of  Cambridge,  p.  164. 

KNOWING  nothing  by  direct  evidence  of  Francis 
Higginson's  college  life,  we  yet  know  in  a  general 
way  what  it  must  have  been.  The  college  selected 
was  that  in  which  his  father  had  studied,  Jesus  College, 
and  was  then,  as  now,  one  of  the  intermediate  col- 
leges in  Cambridge  University,  —  neither  largest  nor 
smallest,  neither  oldest  nor  youngest.  It  ranks  tenth 
in  date  of  origin,  and  in  1888  seventh  in  number  of 
pupils.  It  was  already  famous  in  Francis  Higginson's 
day  as  the  College  of  Cranmer ;  and  the  fame  was 
later  prolonged  through  the  names  of  eighteen  other 
English  bishops ;  of  Eliot,  the  Indian  Apostle ;  of 
Flamsteed  the  astronomer,  Hartley  the  metaphysi- 
cian, Ockley  the  Orientalist,  Jortin  the  theologian ;  of 
Laurence  Sterne  and  his  friend  John  Hall  Stevenson, 
the  Eugenius  of  Sterne.1  Visitors  to  Cambridge  will 

1  Ackermann's  History  of  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
ii.  20. 


AN  ENGLISH  UNIVERSITY.  9 

remember  the  somewhat  isolated  and  stately  air  of 
Jesus  College;  its  sombre  brick  walls  and  ancient 
gateway;  its  heavy  tower,  surmounting  a  chapel  of 
the  twelfth  century ;  and  the  meadows,  extending  to 
the  river,  and  still  making  the  situation  beautiful. 

It  makes  Francis  Higginson's  university  career 
seem  a  great  way  off,  to  consider  that  he  was  at  Cam- 
bridge twenty  years  before  Milton,  —  twenty  years  be- 
fore that  great  period  described  by  Mullinger  (1632), 
when  Milton,  Fuller,  Henry  More,  Cudworth,  Crashaw, 
and  Jeremy  Taylor  might  probably  have  been  met  on 
the  same  day  in  the  streets  of  Cambridge.1  But  he 
was  there  at  a  period  when  the  great  influence  of 
Erasmus  had  already  given  a  new  impulse  to  univer- 
sity studies.  After  Erasmus  became  professor  of 
Greek,  as  he  himself  claimed,  not  that  study  alone, 
but  all  others  were  amplified.  "  There  was  an  acces- 
sion of  good  learning,  the  knowledge  of  Mathematics 
came  in ;  a  new  and  indeed  a  renewed  Aristotle  came 
in ;  so  many  authors  came  in,  whose  very  names  were 
anciently  unknown.  To  wit,  it  (the  University)  hath 
flourished  so  much  that  it  may  contend  with  the  prime 
schools  of  this  age ;  and  hath  such  men  therein,  to 
whom  if  such  be  compared  that  were  in  the  age  before, 
they  will  seem  rather  shadows  of  divines  than  divines."  2 
•  Roger  Ascham  wrote  somewhat  later  of  Cambridge 
(in  1540)  :  "  You  would  not  know  it  to  be  the  same 
place.  .  .  .  Aristotle  and  Plato  are  read  by  '  boys ' 

1  Mullinger,  Cambridge  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,  p.  26. 

2  Erasmus,  Epistolae,  ii.  10,  quoted  by  Mullinger,  p.  15. 


I0  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

in  the  original,  and  have  been  now  for  five  years. 
Sophocles  and  Euripides  are  now  more  familiar  here 
than  Plautus  was  in  your  time.  Herodotus,  Thucy- 
dides,  and  Xenophon  are  more  often  on  the  lips  and 
hands  of  all  than  Livy  was  then.  What  was  then  said 
of  Cicero  you  may  now  hear  said  of  Demosthenes. 
More  copies  of  Isocrates  are  now  in  the  <  boys' '  hands 
than  of  Terence  then.  Meanwhile  we  do  not  scorn  the 
Latins,  but  most  ardently  embrace  the  best  authors 
who  flourished  in  that  golden  age."  l  In  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth  there  were  also  created  four  lectures,  deal- 
ing respectively  with  Rhetoric,  Logic,  Philosophy,  and 
Mathematics ; 2  and  though  the  text-books  and  the 
methods  of  their  teaching  were  drawn  from  the  classi- 
cal authors,  yet  that  was  the  inevitable  means  of  in- 
struction in  that  age,  and  the  mere  list  of  authors 
above  given  shows  that  the  students  were  trained  on 
the  masterpieces  of  literature.8  There  was  a  four- 
years  undergraduate  course,  and  a  three-years  graduate 
course ;  and  the  average  age  of  entrance  was  from 
fourteen  to  sixteen  years,  although  Francis  Higginson 
appears  to  have  entered  at  seventeen  or  eighteen. 
Morning  chapel  was  at  five,  dinner  in  hall  at  noon, 
evening  chapel  and  supper  in  the  hall  at  seven.  Stu- 
dents were  in  residence  for  the  whole  year ;  they  were 
habitually  confined  within  the  walls  of  their  college,  ex- 
cept when  they  left  them  to  attend  general  exercises ; 
if  allowed  by  special  permission  to  go  into  the  town, 

1  Ascham,  Epist.  74,  quoted  by  Mullinger,  p.  17. 

2  Mullinger,  p.  18.  3  Ibid,,  p.  28. 


AN  ENGLISH  UNIVERSITY.  n 

a  tutor  or  Master  of  Arts  must  be  their  escort.  They 
could  not  keep  dogs  or  fierce  birds;  they  could 
only  play  at  cards  or  dice  at  Christmas  time ;  they 
were  liable  to  corporal  punishment  j  and  Dr.  Johnson, 
following  Aubrey,  says  that  Milton  was  one  of  the  last 
who  suffered  this,  although  Mr.  Masson  disputes  the 
charge.1  We  are,  on  the  whole,  less  familiar  with  the 
internal  condition  of  Cambridge  than  of  Oxford,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century ;  but  it  is  known 
that  the  principle  of  conferring  degrees  on  examina- 
tion, a  principle  not  recognized  at  Oxford  until  1638, 
had  been  the  practice  at  Cambridge  a  century  before. 
This  undoubtedly  contributed  to  that  higher  intel- 
lectual standing  of  Cambridge  at  the  time  of  the 
Puritan  emigration  which  the  recognized  historian  of 
the  English  universities,  Huber,  concedes.2  On  the 
other  hand,  Sir  Simonds  d'Ewes  declares,  writing  of 
Cambridge  in  1620,  seven  years  after  Francis  Higgin- 
son  left  it,  that  "  swearing,  drinking,  rioting,  and  hatred 
of  all  piety  and  virtue  under  false  and  adulterate  names 
did  abound  there  and  generally  in  all  the  university."  8 
He  was  a  fellow- commoner  at  St.  John's,  and  may 
have  generalized  too  hastily  from  his  own  college. 
In  a  paper  submitted  to  Archbishop  Laud  in  1636,  of 
which  Dr.  Sterne,  Master  of  Jesus  College,  was  one  of 
the  -signers,  the  complaints  made  were  of  ultra-Puritan 
practices  in  devotion  side  by  side  with  too  much  of 

1  Mullinger,  pp.  27,  28;  Masson's  Milton,  i.  136. 

2  Huber's  English  Universities,  vol.  ii.  part  i.  pp.  41,  59,  252. 
8  Quoted  by  Mullinger,  p.  30. 


12  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

" supper-money "  and  of  "fair  and  feminine  cuffs  at 
the  wrist."  *  This  was  after  Francis  Higginson's  time  ; 
but  it  is  certain  that  plays  were  freely  acted  by  the 
students,  even  in  his  day.  Fuller,  for  instance,  de- 
scribes a  "merry  but  abusive  comedy "  composed 
by  the  students  in  1597  and  called  "  Club  Law."  It 
was  intended  to  satirize  the  mayor,  aldermen,  and 
townspeople  generally;  and  as  these  constituted  the 
main  audience,  much  scandal  followed.  Again,  in 
1602,  a  play  called  "The  Return  from  Parnassus,  or 
the  Scourge  of  Simony "  was  enacted  at  St.  John's 
College ;  and  another  play  called  "  Ignoramus "  is 
said  to  have  so  delighted  King  James  that  he  revisited 
Cambridge  to  see  it  again.  Mede  describes  the 
"Fraus  Honesta,"  written  by  Philip  Stubbe,  a  fellow 
of  Trinity,  as  being  produced  in  1616  on  the  visit  of 
Lord  Holland  and  the  French  ambassador.  There 
were  two  thousand  present  in  the  great  hall  of  Trinity ; 
and  the  undergraduates  smoked,  hissed,  threw  pellets, 
and  set  the  proctors  at  defiance.2  Such  scenes  as 
this  Francis  Higginson  may  have  witnessed ;  perhaps 
with  such  aversion  as  they  afterward  inspired  in 
Milton,  who  describes  in  his  "  Apology  for  Smectym- 
nuus  "  the  "  young  divines  and  those  of  next  aptitude 
for  divinity  ...  so  oft  upon  the  stage,  writhing  and 
unboning  their  clergy  limbs  to  all  the  antic  and 
dishonest  gestures."  He  perhaps  here  refers  to  John 
Powers,  who  had  taken  the  part  of  "  Dullman  "  in  the 

1  Peacock's  Statutes  of  the  University  of  Cambridge,  p.  62. 

2  Mullinger,  pp.  39,  40. 


AN  ENGLISH  UNIVERSITY.  13 

play  of  "Ignoramus/*  and  being  afterward  Bishop  of 
Peterborough  was  recognized  by  King  James  as  one 
of  the  actors  in  his  favourite  play.1  Milton  goes  on  in 
wrath  :  "  There,  while  they  acted  and  overacted,  among 
other  young  scholars,  I  was  a  spectator  :  they  thought 
themselves  gallant  men,  and  I  thought  them  fools ; 
they  made  sport,  and  I  laughed."  Whether  Francis 
Higginson  laughed  or  sighed,  we  know  not ;  but  in 
remembering  the  university  training  of  the  fathers  of 
New  England,  we  can  by  no  means  leave  these  revels 
out  of  sight.  But  it  seems  altogether  in  keeping  with 
the  gentle  and  thoughtful  nature  of  Francis  Higginson 
if  we  assume  that  he,  like  Milton,  spent  those  early 
years  "  far  from  all  vice  "  (frocul  omni flagitid)  ? 

For  more  serious  studies  we  can  only  conjecture, 
from  the  general  testimony,  that  the  more  purely 
classical  training  introduced  by  Erasmus  was  now 
waning,  and  that  there  was  a  transfer  of  interest 
toward  patristic  literature.  In  Sir  Simonds  d' Ewes' 
time  (1620)  the  students  read  something  of  Aristotle 
and  Demosthenes,  with  authors  now  so  little  esteemed 
as  Florus  and  Aulus  Gellius ;  and  he  himself  read,  for 
"  recreation,"  Spenser's  "  Faerie  Queene."  8  Lucretius 
had  been  reprinted  in  England  in  1564,  and  Pindar 
in  1619 ;  but  these  did  not  compare  in  importance  to 
the'  costly  edition  of  Chrysostom,  published  in  eight 
volumes  by  Sir  Henry  Saville  in  1612 ;  and  this 
probably  indicates  in  some  degree  the  relative  value 

1  Rennet's  Chronicle,  p.  244,  quoted  by  Mullinger,  p.  43. 

2  Masson,  i.  235.  3  Ibid.,  229. 


1 4  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

then  attached  to  the  classical  and  the  patristic  litera- 
ture. It  is  to  be  remembered  that  John  Harvard, 
coming  to  America  in  1637,  brought  with  him,  in 
his  library,  Horace  and  Homer,  Plato  and  Juvenal. 
It  is  impossible  to  judge  from  Francis  Higginson's 
writings  what  authors  he  had  read ;  but  it  is  worth 
noticing  that  their  pure  and  limpid  simplicity  escapes 
wholly  that  overlading  with  foreign  forms  and  phrases 
which  weighed  down  the  English  style,  a  few  years 
later,  even  of  men  so  renowned  as  Milton,  Jeremy 
Taylor,  and  Sir  Thomas  Browne.  There  is  in  all 
which  Francis  Higginson  wrote  an  utter  simplicity, 
a  limpid  clearness,  and  an  entire  freedom  from  involved 
sentences  or  pedantic  allusions.  Moses  Coit  Tyler, 
the  historian  of  early  American  literature,  says  of  him 
truly:  "Unlabored  as  is  the  composition  of  both  his 
books,  we  find  in  them  a  delicate  felicity  of  expres- 
sion and  a  quiet,  imaginative  picturesqueness."  * 
Possibly  this  was  trained,  as  Sir  Simonds  d'Ewes  says 
of  himself,  by  the  habit  of  writing  "  frequent  Latin 
letters  and  more  frequent  English,"  and  by  the  an- 
swers received  to  those  letters.  D'Ewes  says  that  he 
himself  was  especially  profited  by  the  letters  of  his 
father,  "  whose  English  style  was  very  sententious  and 
lofty."  2  Perhaps  the  English  style  of  the  Rev.  John 
Higginson's  letters  was  simple  and  lucid,  like  that 
of  his  son. 

1  Tyler's  History  of  American  Literature,  i.  167. 

2  Masson,  i.  229. 


EVOLUTION  OF  A  PURITAN  DIVINE.      15 

III. 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  A  PURITAN  DIVINE. 

We  will  therefore  begin  the  history  of  his  life  where  we  find  that 
he  began  to  live.  —  MATHER'S  Magnalia  (of  Francis  Higginson),  i. 
323- 

WE  know,  at  any  rate,  that  Francis  Higginson  took 
his  degree  of  M.A.  in  1613,  and  that  two  years  later 
he  was  settled  over  the  Claybrooke  parish,  apparently 
as  curate  to  his  father,  who  had  then,  in  1615,  been 
in  office  forty-four  years.  Cotton  Mather,  who  at  this 
point  takes  up  his  record,  writing  in  1702,  defines  this 
settlement  at  Claybrooke  as  the  point  where  Francis 
Higginson  "  began  to  live."  He  says  apologetically,-^- 

"If,  in  the  history  of  the  church  for  more  than 
four  thousand  years,  contained  in  the  scriptures,  there 
is  not  recorded  either  the  birthday  of  any  one  saint 
whatever  or  the  birthday  of  him  that  is  the  Lord  of 
all  saints ;  I  hope  it  will  be  accounted  no  defect  in 
our  history  of  this  worthy  man  [Francis  Higginson]  if 
neither  the  day  nor  the  place  of  his  birth  can  be  re- 
covered. We  will  therefore  begin  the  history  of  his 
life  where  we  find  that  he  began  to  five." 

He  then  enters  on  the  narrative,  making,  it  will  be 
seen,  a  mistake  as  to  the  college  where  the  subject  of 
his  memoir  was  educated. 


1 6  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

"  Mr.  Francis  Higginson,  after  he  had  been  educated 
at  £manue/-Co\\edge,  that  seminary  of  Puritans  in 
Cambridge,  until  he  was  Master  of  Arts  :  and  after 
that,  the  true  Emanuel,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  had  by 
the  work  of  regeneration  upon  his  heart,  instructed 
him  in  the  better  and  nobler  arts,  of  living  unto  God ; 
he  was,  by  the  special  providence  of  heaven,  made  a 
servant  of  our  Emanuel,  in  the  ministry  of  the  gospel, 
at  one  of  the  five  parish-churches  in  Leicester.  The 
main  scope  of  his  ministry  was  now  to  promote,  first, 
a  thorough  conversion,  and  then  a  godly  conversation 
among  his  people  :  and  besides  his  being  as  the  famous 
preacher  in  the  wilderness  was,  a  voice,  and  preach- 
ing lectures  of  Christianity  by  his  whole  Christian  and 
most  courteous  and  obliging  behaviour,  he  had  also  a 
most  charming  voice,  which  rendered  him  unto  his 
hearers,  in  all  his  exercises,  another  Ezekiel:  for,  Lo, 
he  was  unto  them,  as  a  very  lovely  song  of  one  that 
hath  a  pleasant  voice,  and  can  play  well  upon  an  in- 
strument:  and  from  all  parts  in  the  neighbourhood  they 
flocked  unto  him.  Such  was  the  divine  presence 
with,  and  blessing  on  the  ministry  of  this  good  man, 
in  this  place,  that  the  influence  thereof  on  the  whole 
town  was  quickly  become  a  matter  of  observation : 
many  were  turned  from  darkness  to  light,  and  from 
Satan  to  God ;  and  many  were  built  up  in  their  most 
holy  faith ;  and  there  was  a  notable  revival  of  religion 
among  them.  And  such  were  his  endeavours  to  con- 
form  unto  the  example  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  our 
grand  Exemplar,  in  the  whole  course  of  his  ministry, 


EVOLUTION  OF  A  PURITAN  DIVINE.         17 

that  we   might  easily   have  written  a  book  of  those 
conformities. 

"  For  some  years  he  continued  in  his  conformity  to 
the  rites  then  required  and  practised  in  the  Church  of 
England ;  but  upon  his  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Arthur 
Hildersham  and  Mr.  Thomas  Hooker,  he  set  himself 
to  study  the  controversies  about  the  evangelical  church- 
discipline  then  agitated  in  the  church  of  God  :  and 
then  the  more  he  studied  the  scripture,  which  is  the 
sole  and  full  rule  of  church- administrations,  the  more 
he  became  dissatisfied  with  the  ceremonies,  which  had 
crept  into  the  worship  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  not 
only  without  the  allowance  of  scripture,  but  also  with- 
out the  countenance  of  the  earliest  antiquity.  From 
this  time  he  became  a  conscientious  non-conformist; 
and  therefore  he  was  deprived  of  his  opportunity  to 
exercise  his  ministry,  in  his  parish-church  :  neverthe- 
less, his  ministry  was  generally  so  desirable  unto  the 
people,  that  they  procured  for  him  the  liberty  to 
preach  a  constant  lecture,  on  one  part  of  the  Lord's 
day ;  and  on  the  other  part,  as  an  assistant  unto  a 
very  aged  parson,  that  wanted  it.  He  was  now  main- 
tained by  the  voluntary  contribution  of  the  inhabitants ; 
and  though  the  rest  of  the  ministers  there  continued 
conformists,  yet  they  all  freely  invited  him  unto  the 
use  •  of  their  pulpits,  as  long  as  they  could  avoid  any 
trouble  to  themselves  by  their  so  doing :  by  which 
means  he  preached  successively  in  three  of  the  parish- 
churches,  after  that  he  had  been  by  non- conformity 
made  incapable.  He  preached  also  at  Belgrave,  a 


1 8  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

mile  out  of  the  town ;  but  under  God,  the  chief 
author  of  these  more  easie  circumstances  unto  such  a 
non-conformist,  was  the  generous  goodness  and  can- 
dour of  Dr.  Williams,  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  to  whose 
diocess  Leicester  belonged.  It  continued  until  the 
fray  between  that  bishop  and  Laud,  the  Bishop  of 
London,  who  set  himself  to  extirpate  and  extinguish 
all  the  non-conformists  that  were  Williams'  favourites, 
among  whom  one  was  Mr.  Higginson. 

"  The  signal  blessing  of  God,  which  accompanied  the 
ministry  of  Mr.  Higginson,  in  Leicester,  was  followed 
with  two  very  contrary  consequences.  On  the  one 
side,  a  great  multitude  of  Christians,  then  called  Puri- 
tans, did  not  only  attend  the  worship  of  God  more 
publickly  in  their  assemblies,  and  more  secretly  in 
their  families,  but  also  they  frequently  had  their  pri- 
vate meetings,  for  prayer  (some  times  with  fasting) 
and  repeating  of  sermons,  and  maintaining  of  profit- 
able conferences,  at  all  which  Mr.  Higginson  himself 
was  often  present :  and  at  these  times,  if  any  of  their 
society  were  scandalous  in  their  conversation,  they 
were  personally  admonished,  and  means  were  used 
with  them  to  bring  them  unto  repentance.  On  the 
other  side,  there  was  a  profane  party,  filled  with  wolvish 
rage  against  the  flock  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
especially  against  this  good  man,  who  was  the  pastor  of 
the  flock  :  whose  impartial  zeal  in  reproving  the  com- 
mon sins  of  the  time  and  place,  did  more  than  a  little 
add  unto  the  exasperations  of  that  party ;  but  also  di- 
vers of  them  turned  persecutors  hereupon,  yet  many 


EVOLUTION  OF  A  PURITAN  DIVINE.         19 

remarkable  providences  laid  a  restraint  upon  them, 
and  the  malignants  were  smitten  with  a  dread  upon 
their  minds,  That  the  judgments  of  God  would  pur- 
sue those  that  should  go  to  harm  such  a  follower  of 
him  that  is  good. 

"  Even  the  Episcopal  party  of  the  English  nation, 
among  whose  thirty  nine  articles  one  is,  That  the 
visible  church  is  a  congregation  of  faith-ful  men,  where 
the  word  of  Christ  is  duly  preached,  and  the  sacra- 
ments be  rightly  administred ;  have  concluded  it,  as 
a  godly  discipline  in  the  primitive  Church,  that  noto- 
rious  sinners  were  put  to  open  penance.  And  in  the 
rubric  before  the  communion,  have  ordered  ministers 
to  advertise  all  notorious  evil  livers,  and  such  as  have 
wronged  their  neighbours  by  word  or  deed,  or  such 
as  have  malice  and  hatred  reigning  between  them, 
that  they  should  not  presume  to  come  to  the  Lord's 
table,  till  they  have  openly  declared  themselves  to  have 
truly  repented.  Under  the  encouragement  hereof, 
Mr.  Higginson,  before  he  became  a  non- conformist, 
professed  this  principle,  That  ignorant  and  scandalous 
persons  are  not  to  be  admitted  unto  the  Lord's  Supper : 
and  as  far  as  he  could,  he  practised  what  he  pro- 
fessed. Wherefore  he  did  catechise  and  examine  per- 
sons about  their  fitness  for  the  communion;  and  if 
any  persons  were  notoriously  scandalous,  he  not  only 
told  them  of  their  sins  in  private,  but  also  in  publick 
declared,  that  they  were  not  to  be  admitted  unto  the 
Lord's  Supper,  until  the  congregation  had  some  testi- 
monies of  their  serious  repentance. 


20  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

"  It  was  a  good  courage  of  old  Cyprian,  to  declare  : 
If  any  think  to  join  themselves  unto  the  church,  not 
by  their  humiliation  and  satisfaction,  when  they  have 
scandalized  the  brethren,  but  by  their  great  words  and 
threats,  let  them  know,  that  the  church  of  God  will 
oppose  them,  and  the  tents  of  Christ  will  not  be  con- 
quered by  them.  And  no  less  was  the  good  metal  in 
our  Higginson.  Accordingly  after  a  sermon  on  those 
words  of  our  Saviour,  Give  not  that  which  is  holy  unto 
dogs,  unto  this  purpose  applied,  going  to  administer 
the  Lord's  Supper  unto  the  communicants,  now  come 
into  the  chancel,  he  espied  one  that  was  known  unto 
them  all,  to  be  a  common  drunkard  and  swearer, 
and  a  very  vicious  person ;  he  told  that  man  before 
them  all,  That  he  was  not  willing  to  give  the  Lord's 
Supper  unto  him,  until  he  had  professed  his  repentance, 
unto  the  satisfaction  of  the  congregation :  and  there- 
fore he  desired  the  man  to  withdraw :  the  sinner 
withdrew,  but  went  out  full  of  such  passion  and 
poison  against  Mr.  Higginson,  and  horror  in  his  own 
conscience,  that  he  fell  sick  upon  it ;  and  while  he 
lay  sick  he  was  visited,  as  well  by  good  people  that 
endeavoured  his  conversion,  as  by  bad  people  that  had 
been  his  old  companions,  and  now  threatned  what  they 
would  do  against  Mr.  Higginson.  The  wretch  contin- 
ued in  an  exorbitant  frame  for  a  few  days,  and  at  last 
roared  out,  That  he  was  damned,  and  that  he  was  a 
dog,  and  that  he  was  going  to  the  dogs  forever.  So  he 
cried,  and  so  he  died  :  and  this  was  known  to  all  people. 

"There  were  many  such  marvellous  judgments  of 


EVOLUTION  OF  A   PURITAN  DIVINE.       21 

God,  which  came  like  fire  from  heaven,  to  restrain 
and  revenge  the  wrongs  which  were  offered  unto  this 
faithful  witness  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Particularly, 
there  was  a  pious  gentlewoman,  the  wife  of  a  very 
profane  gentleman,  dwelling  in  another  parish,  who 
would  frequently  go  to  attend  upon  Mr.  Higginsorfs 
ministry,  both  in  the  publick  and  private  exercises  of 
our  holy  religion ;  whereat  her  husband,  after  many 
other  expressions  of  his  deep  displeasure,  vowed,  that 
he  would  be  revenged  on  Higginson  ;  and  accordingly 
he  resolved  upon  a  journey  to  London,  there  to  exhibit 
a  complaint  against  this  good  man,  at  the  High-  Com- 
mission Court :  but  when  he  had  got  all  things  ready  for 
his  journey,  just  as  he  was  mounting  his  horse,  he  was, 
by  an  immediate  hand  of  heaven,  smitten  with  an  in- 
tolerable torment  of  body,  and  horror  of  conscience, 
and  was  led  into  his  house,  and  laid  upon  his  bed ; 
where,  within  a  few  hours,  death  did  his  office  upon  him. 
"And  unto  the  remarkable  appearances  of  heaven 
on  the  behalf  of  this  faithful  man,  may  be  enumer- 
ated that  which  befel  a  famous  Doctor  of  Divinity, 
prebend  of  a  cathedral,  and  chaplain  to  his  Majesty, 
who  then  lived  in  Leicester :  this  gentleman  preached 
but  very  seldom ;  and  when  he  did  at  all,  it  was  after 
that  fashion,  which  has  sometimes  been  called  gentle- 
man-preaching ;  after  a  flaunting  manner,  and  with 
such  a  vain  ostentation  of  learning,  and  affectation  of 
language,  as  ill-became  the  oracles  of  God ;  the  peo- 
ple generally  flocking  more  to  the  more  edifying 
ministry  of  Mr.  Higginson,  than  to  these  harangues. 


22  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

Our  Doctor  so  extreamly  resented  it,  that  both  pub- 
lickly  and  privately,  on  all  opportunities,  he  expressed 
his  indignation  against  Mr.  Higginson^  and  vowed, 
That  he  would  certainly  drive  him  out  of  the  town. 
Now  it  so  fell  out,  that  the  Sheriff  appointed  this 
Doctor  to  preach  at  the  General  Assizes  there,  and 
gave  him  a  quarter  of  a  year's  time  to  provide  a 
sermon  for  that  occasion :  but  in  all  this  time,  he 
could  not  provide  a  sermon  unto  his  own  satisfaction ; 
insomuch,  that  a  fortnight  before  the  time  was  ex- 
pired, he  expressed  unto  some  of  his  friends  a  de- 
spair of  being  well  provided :  wherefore  his  friends 
perswaded  him  to  try ;  telling  him,  that  if  it  came  to 
the  worst,  Mr.  Higginson  might  be  procured  to  preach 
in  his  room ;  he  was  always  ready.  The  Doctor  was 
wonderfully  averse  unto  this  last  proposal,  and  there- 
fore studied  with  all  his  might,  for  an  agreeable 
sermon ;  but  he  had  such  a  blast  from  heaven  upon 
his  poor  studies,  that  the  very  night  before  the  Assizes 
began,  he  sent  his  wife  to  the  devout  lady  Cave,  who 
prevailed  with  Mr.  Higginson  to  supply  his  place  the 
day  ensuing ;  which  he  did,  with  a  most  suitable,  profi- 
table, and  acceptable  sermon;  and  unto  the  great 
satisfaction  of  the  auditory.  When  the  lady  Cave 
had  let  it  be  known,  how  this  thing,  which  was  much 
wondered  at,  came  about,  the  common  discourse  of 
the  town  upon  it  so  confounded  the  Doctor,  that  he 
left  the  town,  vowing,  That  he  would  never  come  into 
it  again.  Thus  Mr.  Higginson  was  left  in  the  town  ! 
but,  I  pray,  who  was  driven  out  ? 


EVOLUTION  OF  A  PURITAN  DIVINE. 


23 


"  We  lately  styled  Mr.  Higginson  a  faithful  man  : 
and  innumerable  were  the  instances,  wherein  he  so 
approved  himself,  particularly  there  was  a  time  when 
many  courtiers,  lords,  and  gentlemen  coming  in  a  fro- 
lick  to  Leicester,  which  was  counted  a  puritanical 
town,  resolved,  that  they  would  put  a  trick  upon  it. 
Wherefore,  they  invited  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen, 
whereof  divers  were  esteemed  puritans,  unto  a  colla- 
tion ;  and  overcome  them  to  drink  a  number  of  healths, 
with  the  accustomed  ceremonies  of  drinking  upon 
their  knees,  till  they  all  became  shamefully  and  ex- 
treamly  drunk.  This  business  becoming  the  common 
discourse  of  the  town  Mr.  Higginson,  from  a  text 
chosen  to  the  purpose,  in  the  audience  of  the  Mayor 
and  Aldermen  themselves,  demonstrated  the  sinful- 
ness  of  health- drinking,  and  of  drunkenness,  and  the 
aggravation  of  that  sinfulness,  when  it  is  found  in 
magistrates,  whose  duty  't  is  to  punish  it  in  other 
men :  therewithal  admonishing  them  to  repent  seri- 
ously of  the  scandal  which  they  had  given.  This 
faithfulness  of  Mr.  Higginson  was  variously  resented  ', 
some  of  the  people  disliked  it  very  much,  and  some 
of  the  Aldermen  were  so  disturbed  and  enraged  at  it 
that  they  breathed  out  threatnings  till  they  were  out  of 
breath :  but  the  better  sort  of  people  generally  ap- 
proved it,  as  a  conformity  to  that  rule,  them  that  sin 
before  all,  rebuke  before  all,  that  others  may  fear; 
and  several  of  the  Aldermen  confessed  their  sin  with 
a  very  penitent  and  pertinent  ingenuity.  The  issue 
was  that  Mr.  Higginson  was  brought  into  no  trouble ; 


24  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

and  the  God  of  Heaven  so  disposed  the  hearts  of  the 
Mayor  and  Aldermen,  that  after  this,  upon  the  death 
of  old  Mr.  Sacheverel,  they  chose  Mr.  Higginson  to 
be  their  town-preacher,  unto  which  place  there  was 
annexed  a  large  maintainance,  to  be  paid  out  of  the 
town  treasury.  In  answer  hereunto,  Mr.  Higginson 
thanked  them  for  their  good  will ;  but  he  told  them, 
that  he  could  not  accept  of  it,  because  there  were 
some  degrees  of  conformity  therein  required,  which  he 
could  not  now  comply  withal ;  nevertheless  there  be- 
ing divers  competitors  for  the  place,  about  whom  the 
votes  of  the  Aldermen  were  much  divided,  he  pre- 
vailed with  them  to  give  their  votes  for  a  learned  and 
godly  conformist,  one  Mr.  Angel;  who  thereby  came 
to  be  settled  in  it.  There  were  also  made  unto  him, 
several  offers  of  some  of  the  greatest  and  richest  liv- 
ings in  th£  country  thereabouts;  but  the  conscien- 
tious disposition  to  non- conformity  now  growing  upon 
him,  hindred  his  acceptance  of  them. 

"  While  Mr.  Higginson  continued  in  Leicester,  he 
was  not  only  a  good  man  full  of  faith,  but  also  a  good 
man  full  of  work.  He  preached  constantly  in  the 
parish  churches ;  and  he  was  called,  while  a  conformist, 
frequently  to  preach  visitation  sermons,  assize  sermons 
andfunerat  sermons ;  and  as  well  then,  as  afterwards, 
he  was  often  engaged  in  fasts,  both  in  publick  and 
private,  both  at  home  and  abroad ;  and  many  repaired 
unto  him  with  cases  of  conscience,  and  for  help  about 
their  interiour  state.  Besides  all  this,  he  was  very 
serviceable  to  the  education  of  scholars,  either  going 


EVOLUTION-  OF  A   PURITAN  DIVINE.        25 

to,  or  coming  from  the  university ;  and  such  as  after- 
wards proved  eminently  serviceable  to  the  church  of 
God;  whereof  some  were  Dr.  Seaman,  Dr.  Brian, 
Mr.  Richardson,  and  Mr.  Howe,  all  of  them  Leicester- 
shire men,  who  would  often  say,  how  much  they  owed 
unto  Mr.  Higginson.  And  he  was  very  useful  in  for- 
warding and  promoting  of  contributions,  for  the  relief 
of  the  protestant  exiles,  which  came  over  from  the 
ruined  Bohemia,  and  the  distressed  Palatinate,  in 
those  times ;  and  many  other  pious  designs.  But 
when  (as  he  that  writes  the  life  of  holy  Mr.  Bains 
expresses  it)  the  hour  and  power  of  darkness  was  come 
from  Lambeth,  or  when  the  Bishop  of  London  pre- 
vailed, and  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  retired,  the  blades 
of  the  Laudian  faction  about  Leicester  appeared,  in- 
formed and  articled  against  Mr.  Higginson,  so  that 
he  lived  in  continual  expectation  to  be  dragged  away 
by  the  pursevants,  unto  the  High  Commission  Court, 
where  a  sentence  of  perpetual  imprisonment  was  the 
best  thing  that  could  be  looked  for. 

61  Now  behold  the  interposing  and  seasonable  provi- 
dence of  heaven  !  A  considerable  number  of  wealthy 
and  worthy  merchants,  obtaining  a  charter  from  K. 
Charles  I.  whereby  they  were  incorporated  by  the 
name  of  The  Governor  and  Company  of  the  Mas- 
sachuset-Bay  in  New  England ;  and  intending  to 
send  over  ships  with  passengers  for  the  beginning  of 
a  plantation  there,  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1629. 
And  resolving  to  send  none  upon  their  account,  but 
godly  and  honest  men,  professing  that  religion,  which 


26  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

they  declared  was  the  end  of  this  plantation ;  they 
were  informed  of  the  circumstances  whereto  Mr. 
Higginson  was  now  reduced;  and  accordingly  they 
dispatched  a  couple  of  messengers  unto  him,  to  in- 
vite him  unto  a  voyage  into  New  England,  with  kind 
promises  to  support  him  in  the  voyage.  These  two 
messengers  were  ingenious  men;  and  understanding 
\h&\.  pursevants  were  expected  every  hour,  to  fetch  Mr. 
Higginson  up  to  London,  they  designed  for  a  while 
to  act  the  parts  of  pursevants :  coming  therefore  to 
his  door,  they  knocked  roundly  and  loudly,  like  fel- 
lows equipped  with  some  authority ;  and  said,  where 
is  Mr.  Higginson  ?  we  must  speak  with  Mr.  Higgin- 
son /  insomuch  that  his  affrighted  wife  ran  up  to  him, 
telling  him  that  the  pursevants  were  come,  and  pray- 
ing him  to  step  aside  out  of  their  way,  but  Mr.  Hig- 
ginson said,  No,  I  will  go  down  and  speak  with  them  ; 
and  the  will  of  the  Lord  be  done  !  When  the  mes- 
sengers were  come  into  the  hall,  they  held  out  their 
papers  unto  him,  and  with  a  certain  roughness  and 
boldness  of  address  told  him,  Sir,  we  come  from  London, 
and  our  business  is  to  fetch  you  up  to  London,  as  you 
may  see  by  these  papers  !  which  they  then  put  into  his 
hands ;  whereat  the  people  in  the  room  were  confirmed 
in  their  opinion,  that  these  blades  were  pursevants ; 
and  Mrs.  Higginson  herself  said,  /  thought  so :  and  fell 
a  weeping.  But  when  Mr.  Higginson  had  lookt  upon 
the  papers,  he  soon  perceived,  that  they  were  letters 
from  the  governor  and  company  inviting  him  to  New 
England ;  with  a  copy  of  the  charter,  and  propositions 


EVOLUTION  OF  A   PURITAN  DIVINE. 


27 


for  managing  their  design  of  establishing  and  prop- 
agating reformed  Christianity  in  the  new  plantation : 
whereupon  he  bad  them  welcome  !  and  there  ensued 
a  pleasant  conversation  betwixt  him  and  his  now  un- 
disguised friends.  In  answer  to  this  invitation,  Mr. 
Higginson  having  first  consulted  heaven  with  humble 
and  fervent  supplications,  for  the  divine  direction 
about  so  great  a  turn  of  his  life,  he  advised  then  with 
several  ministers ;  especially  with  his  dear  friend  Mr. 
Hildersham,  who  told  him,  That  were  he  himself  a 
younger  man,  and  under  his  case  and  call,  he  should 
think  he  had  a  plain  invitation  of  heaven  unto  the 
voyage ;  and  so  he  came  unto  a  resolution  to  comply 
therewithal. 

"When  Mr.  Higginsori 's  resolution  came  to  be 
known,  it  made  so  much  noise  among  the  Puritans, 
that  many  of  them  receiving  satisfaction  unto  the 
many  enquiries  which  they  made  on  this  occasion, 
resolved  that  they  would  accompany  him.  And  now 
it  was  not  long  before  his  farewel  sermon  was  to  be 
preached  !  before  he  knew  anything  about  an  offer 
of  a  voyage  to  New-England.  In  his  meditations 
about  the  state  of  England,  he  had  strange  and  strong 
apprehensions  that  God  would  shortly  punish  England 
with  the  calamities  of  a  war,  and  he  therefore  com- 
posed a  sermon  upon  those  words  of  our  Saviour, 
Luke  xxi.  20,  21,  When  you  see  Jerusalem  compassed 
with  armies,  then  flee  to  the  mountains.  Now,  after 
he  was  determined  for  New-England,  he  did,  in  a 
vast  assembly,  preach  this  for  his  farewel  sermon, 


28  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGIATSOJ\T. 

and  therein  having  mentioned  unto  them,  what  he 
took  to  be  the  provoking  sins  of  England  in  general, 
and  of  Leicester  in  particular,  he  plainly  told  them, 
that  he  was  perswaded  God  would  chastise  England 
with  a  war,  in  the  sufferings  whereof  Leicester  would 
have  a  more  than  ordinary  share.  How  this  predic- 
tion was  afterwards  accomplished,  is  known  to  man- 
kind ;  and  it  was  especially  known  to  Leicester, 
which  being  strongly  fortified  and  garrisoned,  and 
having  the  wealth  of  all  the  country  about  brought 
into  it,  was  besieged,  and  at  length  carried  by  storm ; 
and  the  town  was  horribly  plundered,  and  eleven 
hundred  people  were  slain  in  the  streets. 

"But  Mr.  Higginson  having  ended  this  his  pro- 
phetical sermon,  he  gave  thanks  to  the  magistrates, 
and  the  other  Christians  of  the  place,  for  all  the 
liberty,  countenance,  and  encouragement  which  they 
had  given  unto  his  ministry :  and  he  told  them  of  his 
intended  removal  to  New-England,  the  principal  end 
of  which  plantation,  he  then  declared,  was  the  prop- 
agation of  religion ;  and  of  the  hopes  which  he  had, 
that  New  England  might  be  designed  by  heaven,  as 
a  refuge  and  shelter  for  the  non-conformists  against 
the  storms  that  were  coming  upon  the  nation,  and  a 
region  where  they  might  practise  the  church-reforma- 
tion, which  they  had  been  bearing  witness  unto. 
And  so  he  concluded  with  a  most  affectionate  prayer 
for  the  King,  the  church,  the  state,  and  peculiarly  for 
Leicester,  the  seat  of  his  former  labours.  And  after 
this  he  took  his  journey,  with  his  family,  for  London; 


EVOLUTION  OF  A  PURITAN  DIVINE.       29 

the  streets  as  he  passed  along  being  filled  with  people 
of  all  sorts,  who  bid  him  farewel,  with  loud  prayers 
and  cries  for  his  welfare. 

"When  he  came  to  London,  he  found  three  ships 
ready  to  sail  for  ^w-England,  with  two  more,  that 
were  in  a  month's  time  to  follow  after  them  :  filled 
with  godly  and  honest  passengers,  among  whom  there 
were  two  other  non- conformist  ministers.  They  set  sail 
from  the  Isle  of  Wight,  about  the  first  of  May,  1629, 
and  when  they  came  to  the  Land's  End,  Mr.  Higgin- 
son  calling  up  his  children  and  other  passengers  unto 
the  stern  of  the  ship,  to  take  their  last  sight  of  Eng- 
land. He  said,  We  will  not  say  as  the  separatists 
were  wont  to  say  at  their  leaving  of  England,  Farewel 
Babylon  !  farewel  Rome  !  but  we  will  say,  farewel 
dear  England !  farewel  the  Church  of  God  in  Eng- 
land, and  all  the  Christian  friends  there  !  We  do  not 
go  to  New- England  as  separatists  from  the  Church  of 
England ;  though  we  cannot  but  separate  from  the 
corruptions  in  it :  but  we  go  to  practise  the  positive 
part  of  church  reformation,  and  propagate  the  gospel 
in  America.  And  so  he  concluded  with  a  fervent 
prayer  for  the  King,  and  church,  and  state,  in  Eng- 
land;  and  for  the  presence  and  blessing  of  God  with 
themselves,  in  their  present  undertaking  for  New- 
England.  At  length  by  the  good  hand  of  God  upon 
them,  they  arrived,  after  a  comfortable  passage,  unto 
Salem  harbour  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  June  ensuing."  * 

1  Mather's  Magnalia  (ed.  1820),  ii.  322-328. 


LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 


IV. 
MIGRATION   TO   THE   NEW  WORLD. 

What  golden  gaine  made  HIGGINSON  remove 

From  fertile  soyle  to  wildernesse  of  rocks  ? 
'T  was  Christ's  rich  pearle  stir'd  up  the  toil  to  love 

For  him  to  feede  in  wildernesse  his  flocks. 
First  Teacher  he,  here,  Sheepe  and  Lambs  together ; 

First  crown'd  shall  be  he,  in  the  Heavens,  of  all 
Christ's  Pastors  here,  but  yet  Christ's  folk  had  rather 

Him  here  retain  ;  blest  he  whom  Christ  hath  call'd. 

JOHNSON:  Wonder- Working  Providence,  etc.  (1654). 

OF  this  voyage  we  have  fortunately  the  journal  as 
kept  by  Francis  Higginson :  but  we  must  first  con- 
sider the  circumstances  under  which  he  was  sent  to 
the  New  World.  In  the  folio  volume  of  early  records 
of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  still  preserved  at 
the  Boston  State  House,  and  carefully  edited,  in  1853, 
by  the  late  Dr.  N.  B.  Shurtleff,  we  find  in  the  first 
undated  list,  headed, — 

"  To  prouide  to  send  for  Newe  England," 
the  following  simple  entries  :  — 

"  Ministers ; 

"  Pattent  under  seale ; 

"  A  seale ; 


MIGRATION  TO    THE  NEW  WORLD.         ^ 

"  Wheate,  rye,  barley,  oates,  a  hhed  [hogshead]  of 
ech  in  the  eare ;  benes,  pease  ; 

"  Stones  of  all  sorts  of  fniites,  as  peaches,  plums, 
filberts,  cherries.'* 

And  so  on,  with  a  long  list  of  things  needful,  wind- 
ing up  with  "  tame  turkeys  "  and  "  copp.  kettells, 
of  ye  F[ren]ch  making,  wthout  barrs  of  iron  about 
them."  But  the  "  ministers  "  head  the  list  and  rank 
first. 

Yet  the  demand  for  ministers,  though  first  in  im- 
portance among  all  demands,  was  not  therefore  the 
need  most  easy  to  supply.  At  the  meetings  of  the 
Company  which  followed  they  contracted  for  ord- 
nance, "  demie  culverings,"  "  sackers,"  and  "  iron 
drakes ; "  they  ordered  for  one  voyage,  "45  tun 
beere,"  and  "  6  tuns  of  water;"  they  "  agreed  with 
Jno.  Hewson  to  make  8  pere  of  welt  neates  leather 
sheues ;  "  they  accepted  James  Edmonds,  "  a  saylor, 
ffisher,  and  a  couper ;  "  Thomas  Graves,  "  a  man  ex- 
perienced in  iron  workes,"  and  Richard  Clayton, 
carpenter;  but  it  was  not  until  March  23,  1628,  that 
they  again  approached  the  question  of  "  ministers." 
Then  we  find  this  brief  record  :  — 

[23]  March,  1828. 
Present,    The  Govnor  Mr.  Humffry 

Deputy  Mr.  W™  Vassall 

S-r   Rich  :  Saltonstall  Mr.  Whetcomb 

Mr-    Davinport  Mr.  Nowell 

Capt.  Venn 


32       •        LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

"At  this  meeting  information  was  given  by  Mr. 
Nowell,  by  letters  ffrom  Mr.  Izake  Johnson,  that  one 
Mr.  Higgeson,  of  Lester,  an  able  minister,  pffers  to 
goe  to  or  plantation ;  who,  being  approved  for  a  rev- 
erend, grave  minister,  fitt  for  or  present  occations,  it 
was  thought  by  thes  present  to  entreat  Mr.  Jno.  Hum- 
fry  to  ride  presently  to  Lester,  and,  if  Mr.  Higgeson 
may  conveniently  be  had  to  goe  this  present  vioage, 
that  he  should  deale  wth  him ;  ffirst,  if  his  remove 
from  thence  may  be  wthout.  scandall  to  that  people, 
and  approved  by  the  consent  of  some  of  the  best 
affected  among  them,  wth  the  approbation  of  Mr. 
Heldersham  of  Asheby,  dallisouch  ; 2  secondly,  that 
in  regard  of  the  shortenes  of  the  time,  the  Company 
conseave  it  would  be  best,  if  hee  so  thought  good,  to 
leave  his  wiffe  &  ifamily  till  towards  Bartholemew,  for 
ther  better  accomadacon  ;  yet  if  this  should  be  held 
inconvenient  [it]  may  be  refferred  to  himselfe  to  take 
[his  wife  and  tw]o  children  wthhim;  thirdly,  that 
for  his  entertaynment  ye  Company  .  .  .  [hiatus  in 
manuscript]."  8 

1  Isaac  Johnson  was  the  largest  contributor  to  the  Company's 
stock ;  and  his  wife,  "  the  Lady  Arbella,"  was  daughter  of  the 
Earl  of  Lincoln.     His  seat  was  near  Leicester,  and  he  doubt- 
less knew  Higginson  personally.     See  Bacon's  Genesis  of  the 
New  England  Churches,  p.  459,  note. 

2  I.  e.,  Ashby-de-la-Zouch. 

8  Records  of  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,  I.  37,  38.  Reprinted  (with  spelling  modernized)  in  Young's 
Chronicles  of  Massachusetts,  p.  65. 


MIGRATION  TO   THE  NEW  WORLD.         33 

It  is  to  be  presumed  that  the  ride  of  Mr.  Humfry 
and  the  counsel  of  Mr.  Hildersham  proved  equally 
satisfactory  to  all  concerned.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Hilder- 
sham, here  mentioned,  was  one  of  the  Puritan 
leaders  in  England,  and  was  known  as  Malleus  Haeri- 
ticorum  for  his  "  singular  learning  and  piety.' '  "  It  is 
affirmed,"  says  Hubbard,  "  that  Mr.  Hildersham  ad- 
vised Mr.  Higginson  and  other  ministers  looking  this 
way  to  agree  upon  their  form  of  church  government 
before  they  came  away  from  England."  *  A  leaf  of 
the  records  is  here  missing ;  but  Prince,  who  evidently 
had  it,  says  that  at  this  meeting  they  chose  Mr.  En- 
dicott  as  Governor  of  the  Plantation,  and  Messrs. 
Higginson,  Skelton,  and  Bright  (ministers),  with 
Messrs.  John  and  Samuel  Brown,  Thomas  Graves, 
and  Samuel  Sharp  as  members  of  his  council.2  The 
first  general  letter  of  instructions  from  the  Company 
to  these  officials  confirms  this  statement.3  This 
makes  plain,  what  might  not  at  first  be  manifest  to 
the  modern  reader,  how  large  a  share  of  civic  as  well 
as  religious  authority  was  given  to  "the  ministers." 
The  Company's  letter  (April  17,  1629)  ordered  that 
the  whole  body  of  the  local  government  should  con- 
sist of  thirteen  members,  and  suggested  that  two  of 
these  should  be  appointed  by  the  few  "  old  plan- 
ters," as  they  were  called,  who  had  gone  out  previ- 
ously to  the  organized  emigration,  —  that  is,  provided 
they  would  accept  the  government  of  the  Company ; 

1  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts,  p.  66. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  66.  8  Ibid.,  p.  144. 


34 


LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 


otherwise  the  eight  men  originally  designated  should 
appoint  the  remaining  five,  making  up,  in  all,  "  The 
Council  of  the  Mattachusetts  Bay."  l 

With  Francis  Higginson  personally  the  agreement 
of  the  Company  was  as  follows,  as  preserved  by 
Hutchinson :  — 

The  Agreement  with  Mr.  Higginson.  A  true  note  of  the 
allowance  that  the  New  England  Company  gave  by 
common  consent  and  order  of  their  court  and  counsell 
granted  unto  Mr.  Francis  Higginson,  minister,  for  his 
maintenance  in  New  England,  April  8,  1629. 

1.  Imprimis,  that  307.  in  money  shall  be  forthwith 
paid  him  by  the  Companyes  treasurer  towards   the 
chardges  of  fitting  himself  with  apparell  and  other 
necessaryes  for  his  voyage. 

2.  Item,  that   io/.  more  shall  be  payed  over  by 
the  said  treasurer  towards  the  providing  of  books  for 
present  use. 

3.  Item,  that  he  shall  have  307.  yearely  paid  him 
for  three  yeares  to  beginne  from  the  tyme  of  his  first 
arrivall  in  New  England ;  and  so  to  be  accounted 
and  paid  him  at  the  end  of  every  yeare. 

4.  Item,  that  during  the  said  tyme  the  Company 
shall  provide  for  him  and  his  family  necessaryes  of 
diett,  housing  and  firewood ;  and  shall  be  att  charges 
of  transporting  him  into  New  England :  And  at  the 

1  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts,  p.  145.  It  is  to  be 
noticed  that  the  name  of  the  colony,  like  those  of  its  officials, 
is  spelled  with  the  latitude  prevailing  in  those  days. 


MIGRATION  TO   THE  NEW  WORLD. 


35 


end  of  the  said  3  yeares,  if  he  shall  not  like  to  con- 
tinue there  any  longer,  to  be  at  the  charge  of  trans- 
porting him  backe  for  England. 

5.  Item,  that  in  convenient  tyme  an  house  shall 
be    built,    and    certayne    lands    allotted    thereunto ; 
which  during  his  stay  in  the  country  and  continu- 
ance in  the  ministry  shall  bee  for  his  use ;  and  after 
his  death  or  removall  the  same  to  be  for  succeeding 
ministers. 

6.  Item,  at  the  expiration  of  the  said  3  yeares 
an  100  acres  of  land  shall  be  assigned  to  him  and  his 
heires  forever. 

7.  Item,  that  in  case  hee  shall  depart  this  life  in 
that  country,  the  said  Company  shall  take  care  for  his 
widdow  during  her  widdowhood  and  aboade  in  that 
country  and  plantation ;  and  the  like  for  his  children 
whilst  they  remaine  upon  the  said  plantation. 

8.  Item,  that  the  milke  of  2  kyne  shall  bee  appointed 
towards  the  chardges  of  diete  for  him  and  his  familye 
as  aforesaid,  and  halfe  the  increase  of  calves  during 
the  said  3  years :  But  the  said  2  kyne,  and  the  other 
halfe  of  the  increase  to  returne  to  the  Company  at 
the  end  of  the  said  3  years. 

9.  Item,  that  he  shall  have  liberty  of  carrying  over 
bedding,  linnen,  brasse,  iron,  pewter,  of  his  owne  for 
his  necessary  use  during  the  said  tyme. 

10.  Item,  that  if  he  continue  7  years  upon  the  said 
plantation,  that  then  100  acres  of  land  more  shall  be 
allotted  him  for  him  and  his  for  ever.1 

1  Hutchinson's  Collections  (Prince  Society's  reprint),  i.  26. 


3  6  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

In  connection  with  this,  a  document  was  signed  by 
Messrs.  Higginson  and  Skelton,  based  partly  on  a 
previous  contract  made  by  the  Company  with  Rev. 
Francis  Bright,  who  came  out  with  the  others,  but  did 
not  remain  long  in  the  colony.1 

Messrs.  Higginson1  s  and  Skelton *s  Contract. 

The  8  of  April,  1629.  Mr.  ffrancis  Higgeson  and 
Mr.  Samuell  Skelton  intended  ministers  of  this  plan- 
tacbn,  and  it  being  thought  meete  to  consider  of  their 
entertainment,  who  expressing  their  willingness,  to- 
gether also  with  Mr.  ffrancis  Bright,  being  now  present 
to  doe  their  endeavour  in  their  places  of  the  minis- 
terie,  as  well  in  preaching,  catechisinge,  as  also  in 
teaching  or  causing  to  be  taught  the  Company's  ser- 
vants and  their  children,  wherby  to  their  vttermost  to 
further  the  maine  end  of  this  plantation,  being  by  the 
assistance  of  Almighty  God  the  convertion  of  the 
salvages ;  the  propositions  and  agreements  concluded 
on  with  Mr.  ffrancis  Bright  the  second  of  ffebruary 
last,  were  reciprocallie  accepted  of  by  Mr.  ffrancis 
Higgeson  and  Mr.  Samuell  Skelton,  who  are  in  every 
respect  to  have  the  like  conditions  as  Mr.  Bright  hath, 
only  whereas  Mr.  Higgeson  hath  eight  children,  it  is 
intended  that  ;£io  more  yearly  shalbe  allowed  him 
towarde  their  chardges;  And  is  agreed  that  the  in- 
crease to  be  improved  of  all  their  grounds  during  the 

1  He  soon  left  Salem  for  Charlestown,  and  in  about  a  year 
returned  to  England.  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts, 
p.  3*6. 


MIGRATION  TO   THE  NEW  WORLD.         37 

first  3  years,  shalbe  at  the  Companies  disposeinge, 
who  are  to  find  their  dyet  during  that  tyme;  and 
,£10  more  to  Mr.  Higgeson,  towards  his  present 
fitting  him  and  his  for  the  voyage. 

FFRANCIS  HIGGESON. 

SAMUEL  SKELTON. 

Furthermore,  though  it  was  not  mentioned  in  the 
agreement,  but  forgotten,  Mr.  Higgeson  was  promised 
a  man  seruant  to  take  care  and  look  to  his  things, 
and  to  catch  him  fish  and  foule  and  provide  other 
things  needfull  and  also  two  maid  s"eruants  to  look 
to  his  family.1 

1  Felt's  Annals  of  Salem  (2d  ed.),  i.  511  ;  Young's  Chron- 
icles of  Massachusetts,  p.  211.  Hutchinson  does  not  include 
this  document. 


38  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 


V. 


"GENERALL   CONSIDERATIONS"  FOR  THE 
PLANTING   OF    NEW   ENGLAND. 

The  land  growes  weary  of  her  inhabitants,  so  that  man,  which  is 
the  most  precious  of  all  creatures,  is  here  more  vile  and  base  than  the 
earth  they  tread  upon.  —  Generall  Considerations  (Consideration 
Third). 

THERE  is  in  existence  a  document,  long  attributed, 
on  the  high  authority  of  Hutchinson,  to  Francis 
Higginson,  although  later  researches  have  suggested 
for  it  another  origin.  Hutchinson  gives  a  series  of 
documents  with  this  general  heading  :  — 

"Mr.  Francis  Higginson's  Agreement  with  the 
Massachusetts  Company,  the  Engagement  of  several 
of  the  principal  Undertakers  to  transport  themselves 
and  Families,  Mr.  Higginson's  Journal  of  his  Voyage, 
his  Considerations  in  favor  of  the  design  of  colonizing, 
and  his  answer  to  the  objections  made  against  it.'* 

This  is  certainly  very  explicit  authority,  and  from 
a  careful  and  accurate  source,  dating  as  far  back  as 
1769.  On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Savage  and  Mr. 
Young  were  positive  (in  1846)  that  the  manuscript 
which  they  possessed  —  the  same  used  by  Hutchin- 
son —  was  in  the  handwriting  of  John  Winthrop ;  and 


"GENERALL   CONSIDERATIONS."  39 

Mr.  R.  C.  Winthrop  has  cited  (1869),  from  later  in- 
vestigation, additional  reasons  for  thinking  that  part 
or  the  whole  of  the  document  probably  came  from 
his  ancestor's  pen.  But  neither  Savage,  Young,  nor 
Winthrop  meets  fully  the  explicit  assertion  of  Hutch- 
inson,  who  was  a  careful  writer,  and  stood  almost  a 
century  nearer  to  the  events  described.  We  know 
from  the  testimony  of  John  Higginson,  in  his  Election 
Sermon  of  1662,  that  his  father,  Francis  Higginson, 
before  leaving  England,  gave  "  some  account  of  his 
grounds  in  a  great  assembly  of  many  thousands  at 
Leicester,  Old  England ;  he  mentioned  this  one,  the 
mercy  of  the  Patent  permitting  People  here  to  choose 
their  own  magistrates,  and  to  admit  unto  freedom 
such  as  they  should  think  meet,  and  that  religion  was 
the  principal  end  of  this  plantation."  l  He  being 
thus  in  the  habit  of  explaining  publicly  the  "grounds" 
of  emigration,  nothing  is  more  likely  than  that  he 
should  have  also  reduced  those  grounds  to  writing,  for 
the  benefit  of  those  not  present ;  or  that  a  statement 
so  made  should  be  copied  and  passed  from  hand  to 
hand.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  "  Considerations  "  are 
here  given  pro  tanto? 

1  John  Higginson's  Election  Sermon  (1662). 

2  Mather  (i.  65)  gives  the  document,  but  without  assigning 
any  authorship.     Hutchinson  (p.  27)  gives  it,  explicitly  attrib- 
uting it   to  Francis  Higginson.      Felt  strongly  sustains   him 
("Annals  of  Salem/*  2d  ed.  i.  69,  and  "  Ecclesiastical  History 
of  New  England,"  i.  104,  note).    For  the  opposite  view,  see 
Savage's  Winthrop  (i.  360),  and  his  Genealogical  Dictionary, 
art.  "  Higginson;"  also  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts 


40  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

Generall  considerations  for   the  plantation    in    New 
England,  with  an  answer  to  several  objections. 

First.  It  will  be  a  service  to  the  church  of  great 
consequence,  to  carry  the  gospell  into  those  parts  of 
the  world,  and  to  raise  a  bulwarke  against  the  kingdom 
of  Antichrist  which  the  Jesuits  labour  to  rear  up  in  all 
places  of  the  world. 

Secondly.  All  other  churches  of  Europe  are  brought 
to  desolation,  and  it  may  be  justly  feared  that  the  like 
judgment  is  coming  upon  us ;  and  who  knows  but  that 
God  hath  provided  this  place  to  be  a  refuge  for 
many  whom  he  meanes  to  save  out  of  the  general 
destruction. 

Thirdly.  The  land  growes  weary  of  her  inhabitants, 
so  that  man,  which  is  the  most  precious  of  all  crea- 
tures, is  here  more  vile  and  base  than  the  earth  they 
tread  upon ;  so  as  children,  neighbours,  and  friends, 
especially  of  the  poore,  are  counted  the  greatest  bur- 
dens which,  if  things  were  right,  would  be  the  highest 
earthly  blessings. 

Fourthly.  Wee  are  growen  to  that  excess  and  intem- 
perance in  all  excess  of  riot  as  no  meane  estate  almost 
will  suffice  to  keep  saile  with  his  equals,  and  he  that 
fayles  in  it  must  live  in  sorrow  and  contempt.  Hence 
it  comes  to  passe  that  all  arts  and  trades  are  carried  in 
that  deceitful  manner  and  unrighteous  course  as  it  is 

(p.  278),  and  Winthrop's  Winthrop  (i.  317).  The  latter's  text 
differs  considerably  from  that  of  Hutchinson,  which  is  here 
followed.  Compare  Hutchinson  Papers  (Prince  Society),  i.  29. 


"  GENERALL   CONSIDERATIONS."  4I 

almost  impossible  for  a  good  upright  man  to  maintayne 
his  chardge  and  live  comfortably  in  any  of  them. 

Fifthly.  The  schools  of  learning  and  religion  are  so 
corrupted,  as  (besides  the  unsupportable  chardge  of 
this  education)  most  children  (even  the  best,  wittiest, 
and  of  fayerest  hopes)  are  perverted,  corrupted  and 
utterly  over  powered  by  the  multitude  of  evill  examples 
and  licentious  governors  of  those  seminaries. 

Sixthly.  The  whole  earth  is  the  Lord's  garden  and 
hee  hath  given  it  to  the  sons  of  Adam  to  be  tilled  and 
improved  by  them,  why  then  should  we  stand  starving 
here  for  places  of  habitation  (many  men  spending  as 
much  labour  and  cost  to  recover  or  keepe  sometymes 
an  acre  or  two  of  lands,  as  would  procure  him  many 
hundreds  of  acres,  as  good  or  better  in  another  place) 
and  in  the  meane  tyme  suffer  whole  countryes  as  prof- 
itable for  the  use  of  man,  to  lye  waste  without  any 
improvement  ? 

Seventhly.  What  can  bee  a  better  worke  and  more 
noble  and  worthy  a  Christian,  than  to  helpe  to  raise 
and  support  a  particular  church  while  it  is  in  its  infancy, 
and  to  join  our  forces  with  such  a  company  of  faithfull 
people,  as  by  a  tymely  assistance  may  grow  stronger 
and  prosper,  and  for  want  of  it  may  be  put  to  great 
hazzard  if  not  wholly  ruined  ? 

Eighthly.  If  any  such  as  are  known  to  bee  godly  and 
live  in  wealth  and  prosperity  here,  shall  forsake  all  this 
to  joyn  themselves  with  this  church,  and  runne  in  haz- 
ard with  them  of  hard  and  meane  condition,  it  will  be 
an  example  of  great  use  both  for  the  removing  of 


42  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

scandall  and  sinister  and  worldly  respects,  to  give  more 
lyfe  to  the  faith  of  God's  people  in  their  prayers  for 
the  plantation  and  also  to  encourage  others  to  joyne 
the  more  willingly  in  it. 

Objections. 

Object.  I.  It  will  be  a  great  wrong  to  our  owne 
church  and  country  to  take  away  the  best  people ;  and 
we  still  lay  it  more  open  to  the  judgments  feared. 

Ans.  ist,  The  number  will  be  nothing  in  respect  of 
those  that  are  left.  2dly,  Many  that  live  to  no  use 
here,  more  than  for  their  own  private  familyes  may  bee 
employed  to  a  more  common  good  in  another  place. 
3dly,  Such  as  are  of  good  use  here  may  yett  be  so 
employed  as  the  church  shall  receive  no  losse.  And 
since  Christ's  coming  the  church  is  to  be  conceived  as 
universall  without  distinction  of  countryes,  so  as  he 
that  doth  good  in  any  one  place  serves  the  church  in 
all  places,  in  regard  of  the  unitye.  4thly,  It  is  the  re- 
vealed will  of  God  that  the  gospell  should  be  preached 
to  all  nations,  and  though  we  know  not  whether  the 
Indians  will  receive  it  or  not,  yet  it  is  a  good  worke 
to  observe  God's  will  in  offering  it  to  them ;  for  God 
shall  have  glory  by  it  though  they  refuse  it. 

Obj.  2.  We  have  feared  a  judgment  a  long  tyme,  but 
yet  we  are  safe ;  therefore  it  were  better  to  stay  till  it 
come,  and  either  we  may  flie  then,  or  if  we  be  overtaken 
in  it  wee  may  well  be  content  to  suffer  with  such  a 
church  as  ours  is. 

Ans.    It  is  likely  that  this  consideration  made  the 


*  GENERALL   CONSIDER  A  TIONS." 


43 


churches  beyond  the  seas  as  the  Palatinate  and  Rochel, 
&c.  to  sit  still  at  home,  and  not  look  out  for  shelter 
while  they  might  have  found  it,  but  the  wofull  spectacle 
of  their  ruine  may  teach  us  more  wisdome  to  avoid 
the  plague  while  it  is  foreseene,  and  not  to  tarry  as 
they  did  till  it  overtooke  them.  If  they  were  now  at 
their  former  liberty  wee  may  be  sure  they  would  take 
other  courses  for  their  safety.  And  though  most  of 
them  had  miscarried  in  their  escape,  yet  it  had  not 
been  halfe  so  miserable  to  themselves,  or  scandalous 
to  religion,  as  this  desperate  backsliding  and  abjuring 
the  truth,  which  many  of  the  antient  professors  among 
them,  and  the  whole  posterity  that  remayne  are  plunged 
into. 

Obj.  3.  Wee  have  here  a  fruitfull  land  with  peace 
and  plenty  of  all  things. 

Ans.  Wee  are  like  to  have  as  good  conditions  there 
in  tyme ;  but  yet  we  must  leave  all  this  abundance,  if 
it  bee  not  taken  from  us.  When  we  are  in  our  graves, 
it  will  be  all  one  whether  we  have  lived  in  plenty  or  in 
penury,  whether  we  have  dyed  in  a  bed  of  downe  or 
lockes  of  straw.  Onely  this  the  advantage  of  the 
meane  condition,  that  it  is  a  more  freedom  to  dye. 
And  the  lesse  comfort  any  have  in  the  things  of  this 
world,  the  more  liberty  they  have  to  lay  up  treasure 
in  heaven. 

Obj.  4.  We  may  perish  by  the  way  or  when  wee 
come  there,  having  hunger  or  the  sword,  &c.  and  how 
uncomfortable  will  it  be  to  see  our  wives  and  children 
and  friends  come  to  such  miserie  by  our  occasion? 


44 


LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 


Ans.  Such  objections  savour  too  much  of  the  flesh. 
Who  can  secure  himself  or  his  from  the  like  calami- 
ties here?  If  this  course  be  warrantable,  we  may 
trust  God's  providence  for  these  things.  Either  he 
will  keep  those  evils  from  us,  or  will  dispose  them  for 
our  good  and  enable  us  to  bear  them. 

Obj.  5.  But  what  warrant  have  we  to  take  that  land, 
which  is  and  hath  been  of  long  tyme  possessed  of 
others  the  sons  of  Adam? 

Ans.  That  which  is  common  to  all  is  proper  to 
none.  This  savage  people  ruleth  over  many  lands 
without  title  or  property ;  for  they  inclose  no  ground, 
neither  have  they  cattell  to  maintayne  it,  but  remove 
their  dwellings  as  they  have  occasion,  or  as  they  can 
prevail  against  their  neighbours.  And  why  may  not 
Christians  have  liberty  to  go  and  dwell  amongst  them 
in  their  waste  lands  and  woods  (leaving  them  such 
places  as  they  have  manured  for  their  corne)  as  law- 
fully as  Abraham  did  among  the  Sodomites?  For 
God  hath  given  to  the  sons  of  men  a  two-fould  right 
to  the  earth ;  there  is  a  naturall  right  and  a  civil  right. 
The  first  right  was  naturall  when  men'  held  the  earth 
in  common,  every  man  sowing  and  seeding  where  he 
pleased  :  Then,  as  men  and  cattell  increased,  they  ap- 
propriated some  parcells  of  ground  by  enclosing  and 
peculiar  manurance,  and  this  in  tyme  got  them  a  civil 
right.  Such  was  the  right  which  Ephron  the  Hittite 
had  to  the  field  of  Machpelah,  wherein  Abraham  could 
not  bury  a  dead  corpse  without  leave,  though  for  the 
out  parts  of  the  countrey  which  lay  common,  he  dwelt 


"GENERALL   CONSIDERATIONS."  45 

upon  them  and  tooke  the  fruit  of  them  at  his  pleasure. 
This  appears  also  in  Jacob  and  his  sons,  who  fedd 
their  flocks  as  bouldly  in  the  Canaanites  land,  for  he 
is  said  to  be  Lord  of  the  country ;  and  at  Dotham  and 
all  other  places  men  accounted  nothing  their  owne, 
but  that  which  they  had  appropriated  by  their  own 
industry,  as  appears  plainly  by  Abimelech's  servants, 
who  in  their  own  countrey  did  often  contend  with 
Isaac's  servants  about  wells  which  they  had  digged ; 
but  never  about  the  lands  which  they  occupied.  So 
likewise  betweene  Jacob  and  Laban;  he  would  not 
take  a  kidd  of  Laban's  without  speciall  contract ;  but 
he  makes  no  bargaine  with  him  for  the  land  where  he 
fedd.  And  it  is  probable  that  if  the  countrey  had  not 
been  as  free  for  Jacob  as  for  Laban,  that  covetuous 
wretch  would  have  made  his  advantage  of  him,  and 
have  upbraided  Jacob  with  it  as  he  did  with  the  rest. 
2dly,  There  is  more  than  enough  for  them  and  us. 
3dly,  God  hath  consumed  the  natives  with  a  miracu- 
lous plague,  whereby  the  greater  part  of  the  country 
is  left  voide  of  inhabitants.  4thly,  We  shall  come  in 
with  good  leave  of  the  natives. 

Obj.  6.  We  should  send  our  young  ones  and  such 
as  can  best  be  spared,  and  not  of  the  best  of  our  min- 
isters and  magistrates. 

Ans.  It  is  a  great  worke,  and  requires  more  skilfull 
artificers  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  new  building,  than 
to  uphold  and  repayre  one  that  is  already  built.  If 
great  things  be  attempted  by  weake  instruments,  the 
effects  will  be  answerable. 


46  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

Obj.  7.  We  see  that  those  plantations  that  have 
been  formerly  made  succeeded  ill. 

Ans.  The  fruit  of  any  public  designe  is  not  to  be 
discerned  by  the  imediate  success  :  it  may  appear  in 
tyme,  that  they  were  all  to  good  use.  2dly,  There 
were  great  fundamental  errours  in  others,  which  are 
like  to  be  avoided  in  this:  for  ist  there  mayne  end 
and  purpose  was  carnall  and  not  religious.  2d,  They 
aymed  chiefly  at  profitt  and  not  at  the  propagation  of 
religion.  3d,  They  used  too  unfitt  instruments,  a 
multitude  of  rude  and  ungoverned  persons,  the  very 
scums  of  the  land.  4th,  They  did  not  stablish  a 
right  fourme  of  government.1 

1  Hutchinson's  Collections,  pp.  27-31  (Prince  Society's 
reprint,  i.  29-34). 


A  SEA-VOYAGE.  47 


VI. 

A   SEA-VOYAGE   IN   THE   SEVENTEENTH 
CENTURY. 

Those  that  love  their  owne  chimney  corner  and  dare  not  go  farre 
beyond  their  own  townes  end  shall  never  have  the  honour  to  see 
these  wonderfull  workes  of  Almighty  God.  —  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON  : 
Journal. 

LET  us  now  proceed  to  the  journal  itself.  A  manu- 
script containing  it  —  this  not  being  the  original,  but 
a  very  early  copy  —  is  in  possession  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Historical  Society.  It  formerly  belonged  to  Gov. 
Thomas  Hutchinson,  and  was  used  by  him  when  en- 
tire, although  it  is  now  incomplete.  He  reprinted  it 
in  his  "  Collection  of  Original  Papers  relative  to  the 
History  of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  Boston, 
New  England :  Printed  by  Thomas  and  John  Fleet, 
1769"  (p.  32)  ;  and  it  has  been  again  reprinted, 
with  the  spelling  modernized,  in  Young's  "  Chronicles 
of  Massachusetts  "  (p.  213).  It  claims  to  have  been 
"written  from  New  England,  July  24,  1629,"  and  was 
probably  sent  home  on  the  return  of  the  "  Talbot " 
and  "Lion's  Whelp,"  which  are  mentioned,  in  the 
proceedings  of  the  Corporation  (Nov.  19,  1629),  as 
having  then  arrived.1  It  has  never,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  been  reprinted  in  England. 

1  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts,  p.  90. 


48  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

A  true  relation  of  the  last  voyage  to  New  England,  declar- 
ing all  circumstances  with  the  manner  of  the  passage 
we  had  by  sea,  and  what  manner  of  country  and  inhabi- 
tants we  found  when  we  came  to  land  ;  and  what  is  the 
present  state  and  condition  of  the  English  people  that 
are  there  already. 

Faithfully  recorded  according  to  the  very  truth,  for  the 
satisfaction  of  very  many  of  my  loving  friends,  who  have 
earnestly  requested  to  be  truly  notifyed  in  these  things. 

Written  from  New  England,  July  24,  1629. 
Any  curious  criticke  that  lookes  for  exactnes  of  phrases, 
or  expert  seaman  that  regards  propriety  of  sea-termes,  may 
be  disappointed. 

A  true  relation  of  the  last  voyage  to  New  England, 
made  the  last  summer,  begun  the  25th  of  April,  being 
Saturday,  Anno  Domini,  1629. 

"The  Company  of  New  England,  consisting  of 
many  worthy  gentlemen  in  the  citty  of  London,  Dor- 
cester,  and  other  places,  ayming  at  the  glory  of  God, 
the  propagation  of  the  gospell  of  Christ,  the  conver- 
sion of  the  Indians,  and  the  enlargement  of  the  King's 
Majesty's  dominions  in  America,  and  being  authorised 
by  his  royal  letters  patents  for  that  end,  at  their  very 
great  costs  and  charges,  furnished  5  ships  to  go  to 
New  England,  for  the  further  settling  of  the  English 
plantation  that  they  had  already  begun  there. 

"  The  names  of  the  5  shipps  were  as  followeth. 

"  The  first  is  called  the  Talbot,  a  good  and  strong 
ship  of  300  tunnes,  and  19  pieces  of  ordinance,  and 
served  with  30  mariners.  This  ship  carried  about  an 


A  SEA-VOYAGE.  49 

100  planters,  6  goates,  5  great  pieces  of  ordinance, 
with  meale,  oatemeale,  pease,  and  all  manner  of  mu- 
nition and  provision  for  the  plantation  for  a  twelve 
monthe. 

"  The  second  the  George,  another  strong  ship  also, 
about  300  tunnes,  20  pieces  of  ordinance,  served  with 
about  30  mariners ;  her  chiefe  carriage  were  cattell, 
1 2  mares,  30  kyne,  and  some  goates :  Also  there  gad 
in  her  5  2  planters  and  other  provision. 

"  The  third  is  called  the  Lyon's  Whelpe,  a  neat  and 
nimble  ship  of  120  tunnes,  8  pieces  of  ordinance, 
carrying  in  her  many  mariners  and  about  40  planters, 
specially  from  Dorcester  and  other  places  thereabouts, 
with  provision,  and  4  goats. 

"  The  4th  is  called  the  Four  Sisters,  as  I  heare,  of 
about  300  tunns,  which  sayme  ship  carried  many 
cattell,  with  passengers  and  provision. 

"The  5th  is  called  the  Mayflower,  carrying  passen- 
gers and  provision. 

"  Now  amongst  these  5  ships,  the  George  having 
the  special  and  urgent  cause  of  hastening  her  passage, 
set  sayle  before  the  rest  about  the  middle  of  April. 
And  the  Four  Sisters  and  the  Mayflower,  being  not 
thoroughly  furnished,  intended,  as  we  heard,  to  set 
forth  about  3  week  after  us :  But  we  that  were  in  the 
Talbot  and  the  Lyon's  Whelpe,  being  ready  for  our 
voyage,  by  the  good  hand  of  God's  providence,  hoysted 
our  sayle  from  Graves-end  on  Saturday  the  25th  of 
April,  about  7  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Having  but  a 
faynt  wynd  we  could  not  go  farre  that  day,  but  at 


50  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

night  we  arrived  against  Leigh,  which  is  1 2  miles  from 
Graves-end,  and  there  we  rested  that  night,  and  kept 
Sabbath  the  next  day. 

"  On  Monday  (the  2  yth)  we  sat  forward  and  came 
to  the  flatts,  a  passage  somewhat  difficult  by  reason  of 
the  narrownes  of  the  channel  and  shallownes  of  the 
water ;  and  going  over  this  we  were  in  some  daunger  : 
for  the  ship  being  heavy  laden  and  drawing  deepe 
water  was  sensibly  felt  of  us  all  to  strike  3  or  4  tymes 
on  the  ground  :  but  the  wind  blowing  somewhat  strong 
we  were  carried  swiftly  on,  and  at  last  by  God's  bless- 
ing came  safe  to  ancre  at  Gorin  roade. 

"Tuesday  (28th)  we  went  a  little  further,  and  ancred 
over  against  Margret  downe,  staying  for  a  wind  for 
the  Downes. 

"Wednesday  (29th)  we  came  safely  through  with 
much  turning  and  tacking  thorow  the  gullies  into  the 
Downes,  and  stayed  that  night. 

"Thursday  (soth),  Fryday  and  Saturday  (May  ist 
&  2d)  the  wind  blew  hard  from  south  west  and  caused 
our  ship  to  daunce,  and  divers  of  our  passengers  and 
my  wiffe  specially  were  sea  sicke.  Here  the  King's 
ship  called  the  Assurance,  pressed  2  of  our  mariners. 
Here  we  saw  many  porpuses  playing  in  the  sea,  which 
they  say  is  a  signe  of  fowle  weather. 

"  (May  3).  Sabbath  day,  a  windye  day  and  could  : 
We  kept  Sabbath  staying  still  at  the  Downes. 

"  Monday  (4th)  God  sent  us  a  fayre  gale  of  winde, 
North  N.  East,  whereby  we  came  merrily  from  the 
Downes,  and  passing  Dover  we  saw  6  or  7  saile  of 


A  SEA-VOYAGE.  5! 

Dunkirkers 1  wafting  after  us ;  but  it  seemed  they  saw 
our  company  was  too  strong  for  them,  for  then  we 
had  with  us  3  or  4  ships  that  went  for  the  Streights. 
So  they  returned  backe  from  pursuing  us  any  longer. 
But  sayling  with  a  good  wind  we  went  speedily,  and 
at  night  came  neere  the  Isle  of  Wight,  but  being 
darke,  we  durst  not  put  into  the  channell,  but  put 
backe  for  sea-roome  4  houres,  and  then  other  4  houres 
sayled  backe  agayne  the  same  way. 

"Tuesday  (5th)  early  in  the  morning  we  entered 
the  channell,  the  wind  being  weake  and  calme,  and 
passed  by  Portsmouth  very  slowly;  but  in  the  after- 
noone  the  wind  quickened,  and  we  were  forced  to 
ancre  a  little  on  this  side  Cowcastle,  but  the  wind 
growing  more  favourable,  we  weighed  and  came  to 
ancre  againe,  right  against  Cowcastle,  thinking  to  stay 
that  night,  the  wind  being  very  calme.  Here  I  and 
my  wiffe  and  my  daughter  Mary,  and  2  maids,  and 
some  others  with  us,  obtained  of  the  master  of  the 
ship  to  go  ashoare  to  refresh  us,  and  to  wash  our 
linnens,  and  so  we  lay  at  Cowes  that  night.  But  the 
wind  turning  when  we  were  absent,  they  hoysted  sayle 
and  left  us  there,  and  ancred  8  miles  further,  over 
against  Yarmouth,  about  8  of  the  clocke  at  night. 

"  Wednesday  (6th)  betyme  in  the  morning  the 
shalope  was  sent  from  the  ship  to  fetch  us  to  Yarmouth ; 
but  the  water  proved  rough  and  our  women  desired  to 

1  Dunkirk  was  at  this  time  a  part  of  the  Spanish  Nether- 
lands, and  there  was  war  between  England  and  Spain. — 
YOUNG. 


52  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

be  sett  on  shoare  3  miles  short  of  Yarmouth,  and  so 
went  on  foote  by  land  and  lodged  in  Yarmouth  that 
night. 

"  On  Thursday  and  Fryday  (yth  &  8th)  there  master 
Becher,  allowed  by  the  Company,  gave  me  405.  to 
make  our  provision  of  what  things  we  would  for  the 
voyage. 

"  Saturday  (gth)  we  went  to  board  againe  ;  and  this 
day  we  had  2  other  men  pressed  to  serve  the  King's 
ship ;  but  we  got  one  agayne  by  intreaty. 

"The  Sabbath  next  day  (loth)  we  kept  the  ship, 
where  I  preached  in  the  morning ;  and  in  the  after- 
noone was  intreated  to  preach  at  Yarmouth,  where 
Mr.  Meare  and  Captain  Borley  entertained  us  very 
kyndly,  and  earnestly  desired  to  be  satisfied  of  our 
safe  arrivall  in  New  England,  and  of  the  state  of  the 
country. 

"  Monday  morning  (nth)  blew  a  fayre  wind  from 
E.  S.  E.  and  the  Lion's  Whelpe  having  taken  in  all 
her  provision  for  passengers,  about  3  of  the  clocke  in 
the  afternoone  we  hoysed  sayle  for  the  Needles,  and 
by  God's  guidance  safely  passed  that  narrow  passage 
a  little  after  4  a  clocke  in  the  afternoone.  And  being 
entred  into  the  sea,  from  the  top  of  the  mast,  we  dis- 
cerned 4  sayle  of  ships  lying  southward  from  us.  But 
night  coming  on  we  tooke  in  our  long  boate  and 
shalope.  And  the  next  day  (i2th)  we  had  a  fayre 
gale  of  easterly  wind  that  brought  us  towards  night  as 
farre  as  the  Lizzard. 

"  Wednesday  (i3th)  the  wind  still  houlding  easterly, 


A  SEA-VOYAGE.  53 

we  came  as  farre  as  the  land's  end,  in  the  utmost  part 
of  Cornwall,  and  so  left  our  deare  native  soyle  of 
England  behind  us;  and  sayling  about'  10  leagues 
further  we  passed  the  lies  of  Scillie  and  launched  the 
same  day  a  great  way  into  the  maine  ocean.  And 
now  my  wiffe  and  other  passengers  began  to  feele  the 
tossing  waves  of  the  westerne  sea,  and  so  were  very 
sea  sicke. 

"And  this  is  to  be  noted,  that  all  this  while  our 
passage  hath  beene  upon  the  coast  of  England,  so  ought 
truly  to  be  accounted  the  first  day  of  our  parting  with 
Quid  England. 

"Thursday  (i4th)  the  same  easterly  wind  blew  all 
day  and  night,  and  the  next  day  (i5th)  so  that  some 
of  the  seamen  thought  we  were  come  by  this  tyme 
200  leagues  from  England,  but  toward  night  the  wind 
was  calme. 

"  Saturday  (i6th)  we  were  becalmed  all  day.  This 
day  met  us  a  little  ship  that  came  from  Christopher 
islands. 

"Sabbath  (lyth)  being  the  first  Lord's  day  we 
held  at  sea  was  very  calme,  especially  in  the  morning, 
but  we  were  disturbed  in  our  morning  service  by  the 
appearance  of  a  Biscayners  ship,  a  man  of  warre,  that 
made  towards  us,  and  manned  out  his  boate  to  view 
us :  •  But  finding  us  too  strong  for  him  he  durst  not 
venture  to  assault  us,  but  made  off. 

"  This  day  my  two  children  Samuel  and  Mary 
began  to  be  sicke  of  the  small-pocks  and  purples 
together,  which  was  brought  into  the  ship  by  one  Mr. 


54 


LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 


Browne  who  was  sicke  of  the  same  at  Graves- end, 
whom  it  pleased  God  to  make  the  first  occasion  of 
bringing  that  contagious  sicknes  among  us,  wherewith 
many  were  after  afflicted. 

"  Monday  (i8th)  calme  still,  the  wind  being  N.  W. 
blowing  a  little  towards  evening,  but  contrary  to  our 
course. 

"Tuesday  (iQth)  wind  S.  W.  as  little  helpfull  as 
the  former  and  blowing  very  weake.  This  day  the 
master  of  the  ship,  myselfe  and  another  went  aboard 
the  Lion's  Whelpe,  where  Mr.  Gibs  made  us  welcome 
with  bountifull  entertainment.  And  this  day  towards 
night  my  daughter  grew  sicker,  and  many  blew  spots 
were  scene  upon  her  breast,  which  affrighted  us.  At 
the  first  we  thought  they  had  beene  the  plague  tokens ; 
but  we  found  afterwards  that  it  was  only  an  high 
measure  of  the  infection  of  the  pocks,  which  were 
strucke  agayne  into  the  child,  and  so  it  was  God's 
will  the  child  dyed  about  5  of  the  clocke  at  night, 
being  the  first  in  our  ship  that  was  buried  in  the 
bowells  of  the  great  Atlantic  sea ;  which,  as  it  was  a 
griefe  to  us  her  parents  and  a  terrour  to  all  the  rest, 
as  being  the  beginning  of  a  contagious  disease  and 
mortality,  so  in  the  same  judgment  it  pleased  God  to 
remember  mercy  in  the  child,  in  forcing  it  from  a 
world  of  misery  wherein  otherwise  she  had  lived  all 
her  daies.  For  being  about  4  years  ould,  a  yeare 
since,  we  know  not  by  what  meanes,  sweyed  in  the 
backe,  so  that  it  was  broken  and  grew  crooked,  and 
the  joynts  of  her  hipps  were  loosed  and  her  knees 


A   SEA-VOYAGE. 


55 


went  crooked,  pittiful  to  see.  Since  which  she  hath 
had  a  most  lamentable  payne  in  her  belly,  and  would 
oft  tymes  cry  out  in  the  day  and  in  her  sleep  also,  my 
belly !  which  declared  her  extraordinary  distemper. 
So  that  in  respect  of  her  we  had  cause  to  take  her 
death  as  a  blessing  from  the  Lord  to  shorten  her 
miserie. 

"Wednesday  (2Oth)  a  wet  morning,  the  wind  was 
W.  S.  W.  and  in  the  afternoone  N.  W.  by  W.  both 
being  contrary  to  our  course,  which  was  to  saile  W. 
by  S.  Thus  it  pleased  God  to  lay  his  hand  upon  us 
by  sicknes  and  death  and  contrary  winds  ;  and  stirred 
up  some  of  us  to  make  the  motion  of  humbling  our- 
selves under  the  hand  of  God  by  keeping  a  solemn 
day  of  fasting  and  prayer  unto  God,  to  beseech  him 
to  remove  the  continuance  and  further  increase  of 
these  evills  from  us,  which  was  willingly  condescended 
unto  as  a  duty  very  fitting  and  needful  for  our  present 
state  and  condition. 

"Thursday  (2ist)  there  being  two  ministers  in  the 
ship,  Mr.  Smith  and  myselfe,  we  endeavoured,  together 
with  others,  to  consecrate  the  day  as  a  solemn  fasting 
and  humiliation  to  Almighty  God  as  a  furtherance  of 
our  present  worke.  And  it  pleased  God  the  ship  was 
becalmed  all  day,  so  that  we  were  freed  from  any 
encumbrance  :  And  as  sonne  as  we  had  done  pray- 
ers, see  and  behold  the  goodnes  of  God,  about  7  a 
clock  at  night  the  wind  turned  to  N.  E.  and  we  had 
a  fayre  gale  that  night,  as  a  manifest  evidence  of  the 
Lord's  hearing  our  prayers.  I  heard  some  of  the 


56  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

mariners  say,  they  thought  this  was  the  first  sea-fast 
that  ever  was  kept,  and  that  they  never  heard  of  the 
like  perfourmed  at  sea  before. 

"  Fry  day  (22d)  the  wind  fayre,  and  east  northerly, 
and  for  our  purpose  for  New  England.  It  did  blow 
strongly  and  carried  us  on  amayne  with  tossing  waves, 
which  did  affright  them  that  were  not  wonted  to  such 
sights.  * 

"  Saturday  (23d)  the  same  wind  blowing  but  more 
gently.  Now  we  were  comforted  with  the  hope  of 
my  sonne  Samuel's  recovery  of  the  small  pockes. 

"  (24th)  The  2d  Lord's  day,  an  orderly  wind  and 
prosperous. 

"  On  Monday  (25th)  a  fayre  furme  gale,  the  wind 
S.  S.  W. 

"Tuesday  (26th)  about  10  of  the  clocke  in  the 
morning,  whilst  we  were  at  prayers  a  strong  and  sud- 
den blast  came  from  the  north,  that  hoysed  up  the 
waves  and  tossed  us  more  than  ever  before,  and  held 
us  all  the  day  till  toward  night,  and  then  abated  by 
little  and  little  till  it  was  calme.  This  day  Mr.  Goffe's 
great  dog  fell  overboard  and  could  not  be  recovered. 

"Wednesday  (27th)  the  wind  still  N.  and  calme  in 
the  morning,  but  about  noone  there  arose  a  So.  wind, 
which  encreased  more  and  more,  so  that  it  proved  to 
us  that  are  landmen  a  sore  and  terrible  storme ;  for 
the  wind  blew  mightily,  the  rayne  fell  vehemently, 
the  sea  roared  and  the  waves  tossed  us  horribly ;  be- 
sides it  was  fearefull  darke  and  the  mariners  mait  was 
afraid ;  and  noyse  on  the  other  side  with  their  running 


A   SEA-VOYAGE. 


57 


here  and  there,  lowd  crying  one  to  another  to  pull  at 
this  and  that  rope.  The  waves  powred  themselves 
over  the  ship  that  the  2  boats  were  filled  with  water, 
that  they  were  fayne  to  strike  holes  in  the  midst  of 
them  to  let  the  water  out.  Yea  by  the  violence  of  the 
waves  the  long  boates  roape  which  held  it  was  broken, 
and  it  had  like  to  have  been  washed  overboard,  had 
not  the  mariners  with  much  payne  and  daunger  re- 
covered the  same.  But  this  lasted  not  many  houres ; 
after  which  it  became  a  calmish  day.  All  which  while 
I  lay  close  and  war  me  in  my  cabine,  but  farre  from 
having  lift  to  sleepe  with  Jonah;  my  thoughts  were 
otherwise  employed  as  the  tyme  and  place  required. 
Then  I  saw  the  truth  of  the  scripture  Psal.  107,  from 
the  23d  to  the  32d.  And  my  feare  at  this  tyme  was 
the  lesse,  when  I  remembred  what  a  loving  friend  of 
myne,  a  minister  accustomed  to  sea  stormes,  said  to 
me  that  I  might  not  be  dismayed  at  such  stormes,  for 
they  were  ordinary  at  sea,  and  it  seldome  falls  out  that 
a  ship  perisheth  at  them  if  it  have  sea-roome.  Which 
I  the  rather  wryte  that  others  as  well  as  myselfe  by  the 
knowledge  hereof  may  be  encouraged  and  prepared 
against  these  ordinary  sea-stormes. 

"Thursday  (28th)  So.  wind;  calme  at  night. 

"On  Fryday  (29th)  a  boistrous  wind  blowing  crosse, 
but  'was  allayed  towards  night  with  a  showre  of  rayne. 

"  Saturday  (30th)  So.  wind,  but  fayre  and  quiett. 

"Sabbath  day  (3ist)  being  the  3d  Lord's  day,  fayre 
and  calme  ;  we  saw  abundance  of  grampus  fishes,  2  or 
3  yards  long,  and  a  body  as  bigg  as  an  oxe. 


5  8  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

"  Monday  (June  i )  the  wind  westerly  and  calme  : 
But  besides  our  being  stayed  by  contrary  winds  we 
begun  to  find  the  temperature  of  the  ayre  to  alter  and 
to  become  more  soletry  and  subject  to  unwholsome 
foggs.  For  coming  now  to  the  height  of  the  Westerne 
Hands,  some  of  our  men  fell  sicke  of  the  scurvie  and 
others  of  the  small  pockes,  which  more  and  more  in- 
creased :  Yet  thankes  be  to  God  none  dyed  of  it  but 
my  owne  child  mentioned.  And  therefore,  according 
to  our  great  need,  we  appointed  another  fast  for  the 
next  day. 

"Tuesday  (2d)  we  solemnly  celebrate  another  fast. 
The  Lord  that  day  heard  us  before  we  prayed  and  gave 
us  an  answer  before  we  called ;  for  early  in  the  morning 
the  wind  turned  full  east,  being  as  fitt  a  wind  as  could 
blow.  And  sitting  at  my  study  on  the  ship's  poope  I 
saw  many  bonny  fishes  and  porpuses  pursuing  one 
another,  and  leaping  some  of  them  a  yard  above  the 
water.  Also  as  we  were  at  prayers  under  the  hatch, 
some  that  were  above  saw  a  whale  puffing  up  water 
not  farre  from  the  ship.  Now  my  wiffe  was  pretty 
well  recovered  of  her  sea-sicknesse. 

"Wednesday  (3d)  a  fayre  day  and  fine  gale  of  full 
East  wind.  This  day  myselfe  and  others  saw  a  large 
round  fish  sayling  by  the  ship's  side  about  a  yard  in 
length  and  roundeth  every  way.  The  mariners  call  it 
a  sunne  fish ;  it  spreadeth  out  the  finnes  like  beames 
on  every  side  4  or  5. 

"Thursday  and  Fryday  (4th  &  5th)  the  wind  full  E. 
we  were  carried  with  admiration  on  our  journey.  By 


A   SEA-VOYAGE. 


59 


this  we  were  more  than  half  way  to  New  England. 
This  day  a  fish  very  straunge  to  me,  they  call  it  a  car- 
veil  ;  which  came  by  the  ship  side,  wafting  along  the 
top  of  the  water.  It  appeared  at  the  first  like  a  bub- 
ble above  the  water  as  bigg  as  a  man's  fist,  but  the 
fishe  itselfe  is  about  the  bignes  of  a  man's  thum,  so 
that  the  fish  itselfe  and  the  bubble  resemble  a  ship 
with  sayles,  which  therefore  is  called  a  carvell. 

"  Saturday  (6th)  wind  direct  East  still. 

"  (yth)  The  4th  Sabbath  we  kept  at  sea.  The  wind 
easterly  till  noone,  and  then  it  came  full  S.  E.  a  strong 
gale  that  night  and  the  next  day  (8th)  till  night. 
Tuesday  (9th)  the  same  wind  held  till  9  a  clock  in 
the  morning ;  and  then  a  great  showre  which  lasted 
till  about  7  at  night,  and  then  it  was  a  very  calme. 
There  we  sounded  with  a  dipsea  lyne  above  100  fad- 
ome  and  found  no  bottom.  This  day  we  saw  a  fish 
called  a  turkle,  a  great  and  large  shell  fish,  swimming 
above  the  water  neere  the  ship. 

"  Wednesday  (loth)  wind  northerly,  a  fine  gale  but 
calmish  in  the  afternoone. 

"Thursday  (nth)  the  wind  at  N.  an  easye  gale  and 
fayre  morning.  We  saw  a  mountayne  of  ice  shining 
as  white  as  snow  like  to  a  great  rocke  or  clift  on  shoare, 
it  stood  still  and  therefore  we  thought  it  to  be  on 
ground  and  to  reach  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  For 
though  there  came  a  mighty  streame  from  the  north 
yet  it  moved  not,  which  made  us  sound,  and  we  found 
a  banke  of  40  fathom  deepe  whereupon  we  judged  it 
to  rest :  and  the  height  above  was  as  much.  We  saw 


60  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON*. 

also  6  or  7  pieces  of  ice,  floating  on  the  sea,  which 
was  broken  off  from  the  former  mountayne.  We  also 
saw  great  store  of  water  fowle  swimming  by  the  shipp 
within  musket  *shott,  of  a  pyde  colour  and  about 
the  bigness  of  a  wild  duck,  about  40  in  a  company. 
The  mariners  call  them  hag  birds.  Towards  night 
came  a  fogge,  that  the  Lion's  Whelp  was  lost  till  morn- 
ing. And  now  we  saw  many  bony  fish  porpuses  and 
grampuses  every  day  more  and  more. 

"Fryday  (i2th)  Foggie  and  calmish,  the  wind 
northerly  in  the  morning,  but  about  noon  it  came  S.  E. 
a  dainty  loome  gale  which  carried  us  6  leagues  a 
watch. 

"Saturday  (i3th)  the  same  wind  till  night,  and  we 
saw  great  store  of  porpuses  and  grampuses. 

"The  5th  sabbath,  (i 4th)  the  same  wind,  towards 
noon  it  began  to  be  foggie,  and  then  it  rained  till 
night,  we  went  4  or  5  leagues  a  watch. 

"Monday  (i5th)  a  fayre  day  but  foggie,  the  same 
wind  blowing  but  with  fresh  gales  carried  us  7  leagues 
a  watch.  In  the  afternoon  it  blew  harder,  so  the  sea 
was  rough,  and  we  lost  the  sight  of  the  Lion's  Whelpe  : 
it  being  foggie  we  drummed  for  them,  and  they  shot 
of  a  great  piece  of  ordinance,  but  we  heared  not  one 
another. 

"Tuesday  (i6th)  wind  S.  by  E.  foggie  till  about  10 
a  clocke.  While  we  were  at  prayers  it  cleared  up  about 
an  houre,  and  then  we  saw  the  Lion's  Whelpe,  distant 
about  2  leagues  southward,  we  presently  tact  about 
to  meet  her,  and  she  did  the  same  to  meet  us,  but 


A  SEA-VOYAGE.  61 

before  we  could  get  together  a  thick  fogge  came,  that 
we  were  long  in  finding  each  other.  This  day  we 
sounded  divers  tymes,  and  found  ourselves  on  another 
banke,  at  first  40  fathom,  after  36,  after  33,  after  24. 
We  thought  it  to  have  been  the  bank  over  against 
Cape  Sable,  but  we  were  deceived,  for  we  knew  not 
certainly  where  we  were  because  of  the  fogge.  After 
3  or  4  hours  company  we  lost  the  Lion's  Whelpe 
agayne,  and  beate  the  drum  and  shot  of  a  great  piece 
of  ordinance,  and  yet  heard  not  of  them.  But  per- 
ceiving the  bank  to  grow  still  shallower  we  found  it 
27  and  24  fathoms.  Therefore,  being  a  fogg,  and 
fearing  we  were  too  neare  land  we  tackt  about  for 
sea-roome  for  2  or  3  watches,  and  steered  southeast. 

u  Wednesday  (lyth)  very  foggie  still,  and  wind  S. 
by  W.  and  sounding  found  no  bottome  that  we  could 
reach. 

"Thursday  (i8th)  wind  full  W.  and  contrary  to  us. 
This  day  a  notorious  wicked  fellow  that  was  given  to 
swering  and  boasting  of  his  former  wickednes,  bragged 
that  he  had  got  a  wench  with  child  before  he  came 
this  voyage,  and  mocked  at  our  daies  of  fast,  railing 
and  jesting  against  puritans,  this  fellow  fell  sicke  of  the 
pockes  and  dyed.  We  sounded  and  found  38  fathom, 
and  stayed,  for  a  little  while,  to  take  some  cod  fish, 
and-  feasted  ourselves  merrily. 

"Fryday  (iQth)  wind  West  still,  a  very  fayre  clear 
day.  About  4  a  clock  in  the  afternoone  some  went 
up  to  the  top  of  the  mast,  and  affirmed  to  our  great 
comfort  they  saw  land  to  the  northeastward. 


62  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

"Saturday  (2Oth)  wind  S.  W.  a  fayre  gale.  We 
sounded  and  found  40,  30,  22,  and  a  little  after  no 
ground. 

" Sabbath  (2ist)  being  the  6th  Lord's  day;  wind 
northerly  but  fayre  and  calm. 

"Monday  (22d)  wind  easterly,  a  fayre  gale.  This 
day  we  saw  a  great  deal  of  froth  not  farre  from  us  : 
we  feared  it  might  be  some  breach  of  water  against 
some  rockes,  therefore  the  master  of  our  ship  hoisted 
out  the  shalLop  and  went  with  some  of  the  men  to  see 
what  it  was ;  but  found  it  onely  to  be  a  froath  carried 
by  the  streame. 

"Tuesday  (23d)  the  wind  N.  E.  a  fayre  gale. 

"Wednesday  (24th)  wind  N.  E.  a  fayre  day  and 
cleare ;  about  9  a  clocke  in  the  morning  we  espied  a 
shipp  about  4  leagues  behind  us ;  which  proved  to  be 
the  Lion's  Whelpe,  which  had  been  a  weeke  seperated 
from  us,  we  stoped  for  her  company.  This  day  a 
child  of  good  man  Clarke,  which  had  a  consumption 
before  it  came  to  shipp,  died.  This  day  we  had  all  a 
cleare  and  comfortable  sight  of  America,  and  of  the 
Cape  Sable  that  was  over  against  us  7  or  8  leagues 
northward.  Here  we  saw  yellow  gilliflowers  on  the 
sea. 

"Thursday  (25th)  wind  still  N.  E.  a  full  and  fresh 
gale.  In  the  afternoon  we  had  a  cleare  sight  of  many 
islands  and  hills  by  the  sea  shoare.  Now  we  saw 
abundance  of  mackrill,  a  great  store  of  great  whales 
puffing  up  water  as  they  goe,  some  of  them  came 
neere  our  shipp :  this  creature  did  astonish  us  that 


A  SEA-VOYAGE.  63 

saw  them  not  before  ;  their  back  appeared  like  a  little 
island.  At  5  a  clocke  at  night  the  wind  turned  S.  E. 
a  fay  re  gale.  This  day  we  caught  mackrill. 

"Fryday  (26th)  a  foggie  morning,  but  after  cleare 
and  wind  calme.  We  saw  many  scools  of  mackrill, 
infinite  multitudes  on  every  side  our  ship.  The  sea 
was  abundantly  stored  with  rockweed  and  yellow 
flowers  like  gilly-flowers.  By  noon  we  were  within  3 
leagues  of  Capan,  and  as  we  sayled  along  the  coasts 
we  saw  every  hill  and  dale  and  every  island  full  of 
gay  woods  and  high  trees.  The  nearer  we  came  to 
the  shoare  the  more  flowers  in  abundance,  sometymes 
scattered  abroad,  sometymes  joyned  in  sheets  9  or  10 
yards  long,  which  we  supposed  to  be  brought  from 
the  low  meadowes  by  the  tyde.  Now  what  with  fine 
woods  and  greene  trees  by  land,  and  these  yellow 
flowers  paynting  the  sea,  made  us  all  desirous  to  see 
our  new  paradise  of  New  England,  whence  we  saw 
such  forerunning  signals  of  fertilitie  afarre  off.  Com- 
ing neare  the  harbour  towards  night  we  takt  about 
for  sea-roome. 

"Saturday  (27th)  a  foggie  morning;  but  after  8 
o'clocke  in  the  morning  very  cleare,  the  wind  being 
somewhat  contrary  at  So.  and  by  West,  we  tackt  to 
and  againe  with  getting  little ;  but  with  much  adoe, 
about  4  o'clocke  in  the  afternoone,  having  with  much 
payne  compassed  the  harbour,  and  being  ready  to 
enter  the  same,  see  how  things  may  suddenly  change  ! 
there  came  a  fearfull  gust  of  wind  and  rayne  and 
thunder  and  lightning,  whereby  we  were  borne  with 


64  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

no  little  terrour  and  trouble  to  our  mariners,  having 
very  much  adoe  to  loose  downe  the  sayles  when  the 
fury  of  the  storme  held  up.  But  God  be  praised  it 
lasted  but  a  while  and  soone  abated  agayne.  And 
hereby  the  Lord  shewed  us  what  he  could  have  done 
with  us,  if  it  had  pleased  him.  But  blessed  be  God, 
he  soone  removed  this  storme  and  it  was  a  fayre  and 
sweet  evening. 

"  We  had  a  westerly  wind  which  brought  us  between 
5  and  6  o'clock  to  a  fyne  and  sweet  harbour,1  7  miles 
from  the  head  point  of  Capan.  This  harbour  20  ships 
may  easily  ryde  therein,  where  there  was  an  island 
whither  four  of  our  men  with  a  boate  went,  and  brought 
backe  agayne  ripe  strawberries  and  gooseberries,  and 
sweet  single  roses.2  Thus  God  was  merciful  to  us  in 
giving  us  a  tast  and  smell  of  the  sweet  fruit  as  an 
earnest  of  his  bountiful  goodnes  to  welcome  us  at 
our  first  arrivall.  This  harbour  was  two  leagues  and 
something  more  from  the  harbour  at  Naimkecke, 
where  our  ships  were  to  rest,  and  the  plantation  is 
already  begun.  But  because  the  passage  is  difficult 
and  night  drew  on,  we  put  into  Capan  harbour. 

"  (28th)  The  Sabbath,  being  the  first  we  kept  in 
America,  and  the  yth  Lord's  day  after  we  parted  with 
England. 

"Monday  (29th)  we  came  from  Capan,  to  go  to 

1  Gloucester  harbor. 

2  This  was  Ten-Pound  Island,  where  wild  roses  and  straw- 
berries still  grow.     Young  assumes  that  the  roses  were  sweet- 
brier  ;  but  the  common  wild  roses  of  Cape  Ann  are  fragrant. 


A  SEA-VOYAGE.  65 

Naimkecke,  the  wind  northerly.  I  should  have  tould 
you  before  that  the  planters  spying  our  English 
colours  the  Governour  sent  a  shalop  with  2  men  on 
Saturday  to  pilot  us.  These  rested  the  Sabbath  with 
us  at  Capan;  and  this  day,  by  God's  blessing  and 
their  directions,  we  passed  the  curious  and  difficult 
entrance  into  the  large  spacious  harbour  of  Naim- 
kecke. And  as  we  passed  along  it  was  wonderful  to 
behould  so  many  islands  replenished  with  thicke  wood 
and  high  trees,  and  many  fayre  greene  pastures.  And 
being  come  into  the  harbour  we  saw  the  George  to  our 
great  comfort  then  being  come  on  Tuesday  which  was  7 
daies  before  us.  We  rested  that  night  with  glad  and 
thankful  hearts  that  God  had  put  an  end  to  our  long  and 
tedious  journey  through  the  greatest  sea  in  the  world. 
"The  next  morning  (soth)  the  governour  came 
aboard  to  our  ship,  and  bade  us  kindly  welcome,  and 
invited  me  and  my  wiffe  to  come  on  shoare,  and  take 
our  lodging  in  his  house,  which  we  did  accordingly. 

"  Thus  you  have  a  faithful  report  collected  from  day 
to  day  of  all  the  particulars  that  were  worth  noting  in 
our  passage. 


"  Now  in  our  passage  divers  things  are  remarke- 
able  i  — 

"First,  through  God's   blessing   our  passage  was 
short  and  speedy,  for  whereas  we  had  1000  leagues, 
that  is  3000  miles  English,  to  saile  from  Ould  to  New 
5 


66  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSOtf. 

England,  we  performed  the  same  in  6  weeks  and  3 
dayes. 

"  Secondly,  our  passage  was  comfortable  and  easie 
for  the  most  part,  having  ordinarily  fayre  and  moderate 
wind,  and  being  freed  for  the  most  part  from  stormie 
and  rough  seas,  saving  one  night  only,  which  we 
that  were  not  used  thought  to  be  more  terrible  than 
indeed  it  was,  and  this  was  Wednesday  at  night  May 
2  ;th. 

"  Thirdly,  our  passage  was  also  healthfull  to  our  pas- 
sengers, being  freed  from  the  great  contagion  of  the 
scurvie  and  other  maledictions,  which  in  other  pas- 
sages to  other  places  had  taken  away  the  lives  of 
many.  And  yet  we  were  in  all  reason  in  wonderful 
danger  all  the  way,  our  ship  being  greatly  crowded 
with  passengers;  but  through  God's  great  goodness 
we  had  none  that  died  of  the  pockes  but  that  wicked 
fellow  that  scorned  at  fasting  and  prayer.  There  were 
indeed  2  little  children,  one  of  my  owne  and  another 
beside  ;  but  I  do  not  impute  it  meerely  to  the  passage  ; 
for  they  were  both  very  sickly  children,  and  not  likely 
to  have  lived  long,  if  they  had  not  gone  to  sea.  And 
take  this  for  a  rule,  if  children  be  healthfull  when  they 
come  to  sea,  the  younger  they  are  the  better  they  will 
endure  the  sea,  and  are  not  troubled  with  sea-sicknes 
as  older  people  are,  as  we  had  experience  in  many 
children  that  went  this  voyage.  My  wiffe  indeed,  in 
tossing  weather,  was  something  ill  by  vomiting,  but  in 
calme  weather  she  recovered  agayne,  and  is  now  much 
better  for  the  sea  sicknes.  And  for  my  owne  part, 


A  SEA-VOYAGE.  6^ 

whereas  I  have  for  divers  yeares  past  been  very  sickly 
and  ready  to  cast  up  whatsoever  I  have  eaten,  and 
was  very  sicke  at  London  and  Gravesend,  yet  from 
the  tyme  I  came  on  shipboard  to  this  day,  I  have 
been  straungely  healthfull.  And  now  I  can  digest  our 
ship  diett  very  well,  which  I  could  not  when  I  was  at 
land.  And  indeed  in  this  regard  1  have  great  cause 
to  give  God  praise,  that  he  hath  made  my  coming  to 
be  a  method  to  cure  me  of  a  wonderful  weake  stomacke 
and  continual  payne  of  melancholly  wynd  from  the 
splene :  Also  divers  children  were  sicke  of  the  small 
pockes,  but  are  safely  recovered  agayne,  and  2  or  3 
passengers  towards  the  latter  end  of  the  voyage  fell 
sicke  of  the  scurvie,  but  coming  to  land  recovered  in 
a  short  tyme. 

"  Fourthly,  our  passage  was  both  pleasureable  and 
profitable.  For  we  received  instruction  and  delight 
in  behoulding  the  wonders  of  the  Lord  in  the 
deepe  waters,  and  sometimes  seeing  the  sea  round 
us  appearing  with  a  terrible  countenance,  and  as  it 
were  full  of  high  hills  and  deepe  vallyes ;  and  some- 
times it  appeared  as  a  most  plain  and  even  meadow. 
And  ever  and  anon  we  saw  divers  kynds  of  fishes 
sporting  in  the  great  waters,  great  grampuses  and 
huge  whales  going  by  companies  and  purring  up 
water-streames.  Those  that  love  their  owne  chim- 
ney corner,  and  dare  not  go  farre  beyond  their  owne 
townes  end  shall  neever  have  the  honour  to  see  these 
wonderfull  workes  of  Almighty  God. 

"  Fifthly,  we  had  a  pious  and  christian-like  passage  ; 


68  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

for  I  suppose  passengers  shall  seldom  find  a  company 
of  more  religious,  honest,  and  kynd  seamen  than  we 
had.  We  constantly  served  God  morning  and  even- 
ing by  reading  and  expounding  a  chapter,  singing, 
and  prayer.  And  the  Sabbath  was  solemnly  kept  by 
adding  to  the  former,  preaching  twise  and  catechis- 
ing. And  in  our  great  need  we  kept  2  solemne  fasts, 
and  found  a  gracious  effect.  Let  all  that  love  and  use 
fasting  and  praying  take  notise  that  it  is  as  prevaileable 
by  sea  as  by  land,  wheresoever  it  is  faithfully  per- 
formed. Besides  the  ship  master  and  his  company 
used  every  night  to  sett  their  8  and  12  a  clocke 
watches  with  singing  a  psalme  and  prayer  that  was 
not  read  out  of  a  booke.  This  I  wryte  not  for  boast- 
ing and  flattery;  but  for  the  benefit  of  those  that 
have  a  mynd  to  come  to  New  England  hereafter, 
that  if  they  looke  for  and  desyre  to  have  as  prosper- 
ous a  voyage  as  we  had,  they  may  use  the  same 
meanes  to  attayne  the  same.  So  letting  passe  our  pas- 
sage by  sea,  we  will  now  bring  our  discourse  to  land 
on  the  shoare  of  New  England,  and  I  shall  by  God's 
assistance  endeavour  to  speake  nothing  but  the  naked 
truth,  and  both  acquaint  you  with  the  commodities 
and  discommodities  of  the  country." 

Much  discussion  has  arisen  as  to  the  number  of 
persons  who  actually  arrived  with  Higginson.  It  will 
be  remembered  that  up  to  this  time,  and  long  after, 
the  Plymouth  Colony  was  wholly  distinct  from  the 
Massachusetts  Colony,  and  was  habitually  spoken  of 


A   SEA-VOYAGE.  69 

as  "  beyond  Massachusetts  "  —  or  Mattachusets  or 
Masathulets,  according  as  the  difficult  word  chanced 
to  be  pronounced  or  spelled.  John  White's  "  Brief 
Relation  "  or  "  Planter's  Plea,"  for  instance  (London, 
1630),  uses  this  expression.  A  few  stragglers,  after- 
ward habitually  mentioned  as  "  The  Old  Planters,' ' 
had  settled  round  what  were  afterward  Boston  and 
Salem.  But  the  first  emigration  under  the  authority 
of  the  Massachusetts  Company  was  that  under  Endi- 
cott,  who  sailed  in  June,  1828.  John  White  says: 
"  Master  Endecott  was  sent  over  governor,  assisted 
with  a  few  men,  and  arriving  in  safety  there  in  Sep- 
tember, 1628,  and  uniting  his  own  men  with  those 
who  were  formerly  planted  in  the  country  into  one 
body,  they  made  up  in  all  not  much  above  fifty  or 
sixty  persons.  His  prosperous  journey  and  safe  ar- 
rival of  himself  and  all  his  company,  and  good  report 
which  he  sent  back  of  the  country,  gave  such  en- 
couragement to  the  work,  that  more  adventurers  join- 
ing with  the  first  undertakers,  and  all  engaging 
themselves  more  deeply  for  the  prosecution  of  the 
design,  they  sent  over  the  next  year  about  three  hun- 
dred persons  more." 1  This  would  seem  plain  enough. 

Deputy-Governor  Dudley  also  wrote  to  the  Countess 
of  Lincoln,  daughter  of  Lord  Say  and  Sele,  in  1631, 
speaking  of  the  same  emigration :  "  We  sent  divers 
ships  over  with  about  three  hundred  people,  and 
some  cows,  goats,  and  horses,  many  of  which  arrived 
safely."  *  Higginson's  own  claim  is  that  they  brought 

1  White,  in  Young's  Chronicles,  p.  13.      2  Young,  p.  310. 


7° 


LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 


two  hundred  passengers  and  planters.  But  whether 
by  "  planters "  he  intended  to  include  women  and 
children,  or  even  those  who  came  as  servants  to  other 
planters,  has  been  seriously  questioned.  It  is  the 
opinion  of  Barry,  Felt,  Herbert  Adams,  and  other 
authorities,  that  the  number  of  servants  sent  to  Salem 
was  one  hundred  and  eighty,  and  that  Higginson's 
estimate  did  not  include  these.1  The  matter  was 
very  fully  discussed  in  the  Boston  "  Daily  Advertiser  " 
(Dec.  9,  1850,  and  Jan.  i,  1851)  ;  and  the  corre- 
spondence was  reprinted  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  A 
Brief  Passage  at  Arms  in  relation  to  a  small  point  of 
History,"  and  privately  printed  by  Mr.  S.  F.  Haven, 
then  Librarian  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society, 
who  was  one  of  the  disputants,  and  who  inclined 
strongly  to  the  larger  number  as  above.  This  seems 
to  be  the  later  tendency  of  opinion ;  but  it  is  a  matter 
that  need  not  here  be  further  considered. 

1  Barry's  History  of  Massachusetts,  i.  165 ;   Adams,  in  Es- 
sex Inst.  Hist.  Coll.  xix.  162. 


A  LETTER  SENT  HOME. 


VII. 

A   LETTER   SENT   HOME. 

A  Letter  then  from  New  England,  and  for  a  considerable  time 
after,  was  Venerated  as  a  Sacred  Script, or  as  the  Writing  of  some  Holy 
Prophet.  —  SCOTTOW  :  Narrative  of  the  Planting  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Colony. 

SCOTTOW,  in  his  "  Narrative,"  tells  us,  in  regard  to 
this  period,  that  "  a  Letter  then  from  New  England, 
and  for  a  considerable  time  after,  was  Venerated  as  a 
Sacred  Script,  or  as  the  writing  of  some  Holy  Prophet ; 
't  was  carried  many  Miles,  where  divers  came  to  hear 
it."  *  One  of  these  cherished  letters  was  probably  the 
following  from  Francis  Higginson,  sent  back,  in  Felt's 
opinion,  about  July  24,  i629,2  and  giving  his  impres- 
sions of  his  new  life  after  little  more  than  a  month  on 
shore.  Young  assigns  it  to  September,  and  thinks 
that  this  is  the  letter  mentioned  by  Winthrop,  in  a 
letter  to  his  son  John  (Oct.  9,  i629),8  thus  hardly 
allowing  time  enough  for  the  long  voyage.  It  is 
thus. printed  in  Hutchinson's  Collections:  — 

1  "Narrative/'  etc.,  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxxiv.  293. 

2  Felt's  Annals  of  Salem  (2d  ed.),  i.  116. 

3  Winthrop's  History,  i.  361  ;  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massa- 
chusetts, p.  264. 


72  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

Some  brief  collections  out  of  a  letter  that  Mr.  Higginson 
sent  to  his  friends  at  Leicester. 

"  There  are  certainly  expected  here  the  next 
spring  the  coming  of  60  familyes  out  Dorcetter- 
shire,  who  have  by  letters  signified  so  much  to  the 
Governour  to  desyre  him  to  appoint  them  places  of 
habitations ;  they  bringing  their  ministers  with  them. 
Also  many  families  are  expected  out  of  Lincolnshire 
and  a  minister  with  them,  and  a  great  company 
of  godly  Christians  out  of  London.  Such  of  you  as 
come  from  Leister,  I  would  counsell  you  to  come 
quickly,  and  that  for  two  reasons,  ist,  if  you  linger 
too  long,  the  passages  of  Jordan  through  the  malice 
of  Sathan  may  be  stopped ;  that  you  can  not  come 
if  you  would.1  2dly,  Those  that  come  first  speed 
best  here,  and  have  the  priviledge  of  choosing  choise 
places  of  habitations.  Little  children  of  5  years  ould 
may  by  setting  corne  one  month  be  able  to  get  their 
owne  maintenance  abundantly.  Oh  what  a  good  worke 
might  you  that  are  rich  do  for  your  poore  brethren,  to 
helpe  them  with  your  purses  onely  to  convey  them 
hither  with  their  children  and  families,  where  they 
may  live  as  well  both  for  soule  and  body  as  any  where 
in  the  world.  Besides  they  will  recompense  the  cost 
by  helping  to  build  houses  and  plant  your  ground  for  a 
tyme ;  which  shall  be  difficult  worke  at  the  first,  except 

1  This  prediction  was  soon  fulfilled,  and  great  obstacles  were 
put  in  the  way  of  emigration.  See  Chalmers's  Annals,  i.  161  ; 
Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  109;  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachu- 
setts, p.  260,  note. 


A   LETTER  SENT  HOME. 


73 


you  have  the  helpe  of  many  hands.  Mr.  Johnson 
out  of  Lincolnshire  and  many  others  have  helped  our 
godly  Christians  hither,  to  be  employed  in  their  worke 
for  a  while,  and  then  to  live  of  themselves.  We  have 
here  about  40  goats  that  give  milke,  and  as  many 
milch  kyne ;  we  have  6  or  7  mares  and  an  horse,  and 
do  every  day  expect  the  coming  of  half  a  score  mares 
more,  and  30  kyne  by  two  shipps  that  are  to  follow 
us.1  They  that  come  let  them  bring  mares,  kyne  and 
sheepe  as  many  as  they  can  :  Ireland  is  the  best  place 
to  provide  sheepe,  and  lyes  in  the  way.  Bring  none 
that  are  in  lambe,  nor  mares  in  foale ;  for  they  are  in 
more  danger  to  perish  at  sea.  Of  all  trades  carpen- 
ters are  more  needful,  therefore  bring  as  many  as  you 
can.  It  were  a  wise  course  for  those  that  are  of  abili- 
tyes  to  joyne  together  and  buy  a  shipp  for  the  voy- 
age and  other  merchandize.  For  the  governor  2  would 
that  any  man  may  employ  his  stocke  in  what  merchan- 
dises he  pleases,  excepting  onely  beaver  skins,  which 
the  company  of  merchants  reserve  to  themselves  and 
the  managing  of  the  publique  stocke.  If  any  be  of  the 
mynde  to  buy  a  shipp,  my  cousin  Nowells 8  counsell 
would  be  good.  Also  one  Mr.  [Beecher]  a  very  godly 
man  and  the  master  of  the  ship  we  went  in,  and  like- 
wise one  Mr.  Graves,4  the  master's  maite,  dwelling  in 

1  The  "  Four  Sisters  "  and  the  "  Mayflower." 

2  Endicott. 

8  Increase  Nowell,  afterward  Secretary  of  the  colony. 
Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts,  p.  262,  note. 

4  This  Graves  came  annually  to  the  colony  for  seven  years, 
and  was  (probably)  made  a  Rear  Admiral  by  Cromwell,  for 


74  LIFE    OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

Wapping,  may  herein  staund  you  in  steed.  The  pay- 
ment of  the  transportation  of  things  is  wondrous  deare, 
as  5/.  a  man,  and  io/.  a  horse,  and  commonly  3/. 
for  every  tunne  of  goodes  :  So  that  a  little  more  then 
will  pay  for  the  passage  will  purchase  the  possession 
of  a  ship  for  all  together. 

"  No  man  hath  or  can  have  a  house  built  for  him 
here  unlesse  he  comes  himselfe,  or  else  sends  seruants 
before  to  do  it  for  him.  It  was  an  errour  that  I  now 
perceive  both  in  myselfe,  and  others  did  conceive  by 
not  rightly  understanding  the  merchaunts  meaning. 
For  we  thought  that  all  that  put  in  their  money  into 
the  common  stocke  should  have  a  house  built  for 
them,  besides  such  a  portion  of  land ;  but  it  was  not 
so.  They  shall  indeed  have  so  much  land  allotted  to 
them  when  they  come  to  take  possession  of  it  and 
make  use  of  it,  but  if  they  will  have  houses  they  must 
build  them.  Indeed  we  that  are  ministers,  and  all 
the  rest  that  were  entertained  and  sent  over  and  main- 
tained by  the  rest  of  the  company,  as  their  servants, 
for  such  a  tyme  in  such  employments,  all  such  are  to 
have  houses  built  them  of  the  companies  charge  and 
no  others  nor  otherwise.  They  that  put  money  into 
the  stocke,  as  they  do  a  good  worke  to  helpe  forwards 
so  worthy  a  plantation,  so  all  the  gayne  they  are  like 
to  have,  is  according  to  the  increase  of  the  stocke  at 
3  yeares  end,  by  the  trade  of  beaver,  besides  the  lands 
which  they  shall  enjoy  when  they  will. 

"  All  that  come  must  have  victualls  with  them  for 

capturing  a  Dutch  privateer.  See  Young's  Chronicles  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, p.  262,  note. 


A  LETTER  SENT  HOME. 


75 


a  twelve  month,  I  meane  they  must  have  meale,  oat- 
meale  and  such  like  sustenaunce  of  food,  till  they  can 
gett  increase  of  corne  by  their  owne  labour.  For, 
otherwise,  so  many  may  come  without  provision  at 
the  first,  as  that  our  small  beginnings  may  not  be  suf- 
ficient to  maintayne  them. 

"  Before  you  come  be  carefull  to  be  strongly  instructed 
what  things  are  fittest  to  bring  with  you  for  your  more 
comfortable  passage  at  sea,  as  also  for  your  husband- 
rey  occasions  when  you  come  to  the  land.  For  when 
you  are  once  parted  with  England  you  shall  meete 
neither  with  taverns  nor  alehouse,  nor  butchers,  nor 
grosers,  nor  apothecaries  shops  to  helpe  what  things 
you  need,  in  the  midst  of  the  great  ocean,  nor  when 
you  are  come  to  land,  here  are  yet  neither  markets 
nor  fayres  to  buy  what  you  want.  Therefore  be  sure 
to  furnish  yourselves  with  things  fitting  to  be  had  be- 
fore you  come ;  as  meale  for  bread,  malt  for  drinke, 
woollen  and  linnen  cloath,  and  leather  for  shoes,  and 
all  manner  of  carpenters  tooles,  and  a  good  deale  of 
iron  and  steele  to  make  nailes,  and  lockes  for  houses 
and  furniture  for  ploughs  and  carts,  and  glasse  for 
windowes,  and  many  other  things  which  were  better 
for  you  to  think  of  them  there  than  to  want  them  here. 

"  Whilst  I  was  writing  this  letter  my  wiffe  brought 
me  word  that  the  fishers  had  caught  1 600  basse  at  one 
draught,  which  if  they  were  in  England  were  worth 
many  a  pound."  l 

1  Reprinted  from  Hutchinson's  Collections,  p.  47  (Prince 
reprint,  i.  52).  It  has  also  been  printed  (with  spelling  mod- 
ernized) in  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts,  p.  260. 


76  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 


VIII. 
THE  FIRST  AMERICAN   ORDINATION. 

Consulted  with  them  about  settling  a  reformed  congregation.— 
MORTON  :  New  England's  Memorial. 

THERE  are  few  things  more  curious  in  religious  his- 
tory than  the  promptness  with  which  the  Massachu- 
setts Bay  Puritans,  once  upon  the  soil  of  a  new  con- 
tinent, threw  off  the  whole  English  system  of  church 
organization.  "  Not  a  fragment  of  hierarchical  order 
found  a  place  in  the  fabric  of  the  New  England 
churches ;  "  *  and  Francis  Higginson,  who  claimed 
that  he  and  his  friends  did  not  "  go  to  New  England 
as  separatists  from  the  Church  of  England,"  at  once 
became  practically  a  separatist  himself,  without  a  trace 
of  intermediate  hesitation.  Dr.  Palfrey  thinks  that 
the  mere  experience  of  a  six  weeks'  voyage  may  have 
wholly  changed  the  mental  attitude  of  those  who  en- 
dured its  ordeal,  and  says  truly  that  "  as  one  party 
after  another  of  earnest  men  came  to  confer  together 
on  New  England  soil,  it  is  striking  to  observe  to 
what  an  extent  they  had  grown  to  be  of  one  mind 
respecting  the  duty  of  rejecting  the  whole  constitu- 
tion of  the  English  establishment."  2  Unquestionably 

1  Palfrey,  i.  298.  2  Ibid. 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  ORDINATION. 


77 


the  visits  of  men  from  the  Plymouth  Colony,  who  were 
already  separatists,  had  an  influence  on  the  action  of 
the  men  at  Massachusetts  Bay ;  and  Governor  Endi- 
cott,  before  the  arrival  of  Higginson,  writing  to  Gov- 
ernor Bradford,  of  Plymouth,  to  thank  him  for  the 
ministrations  of  one  of  these  visitors,  had  said,  "  I  re- 
joice much  that  I  am  by  him  satisfied  touching  your 
judgments  of  the  outward  form  of  God's  worship."  1 
It  is  also  to  be  noticed  that  a  so-called  separatist 
minister,  Ralph  Smith,  was  the  companion  of  Higgin- 
son on  his  six  weeks'  voyage,  his  desire  to  come  hav- 
ing been  granted,  as  the  Company  said,  "  before  we 
understood  of  his  difference  in  judgment  in  some 
things  from  our  ministers ;  " 2  and  it  may  be  that  his 
judgment  had  its  influence  on  his  companions  dur- 
ing the  long  discussions  of  those  weary  days. 

A  very  important  factor  in  the  case  was  undoubt- 
edly the  influence  of  Dr.  Samuel  Fuller,  of  the 
Plymouth  Colony,  who  was  summoned  to  Salem 
by  Endicott  before  Higginson' s  arrival.8  He  was 
brought  there  to  attend  upon  the  sick,  but  Dr.  Fuller 
was  also  Deacon  Fuller;  his  visit  strengthened  the 
friendship  between  Endicott  and  Bradford,  and  un- 
questionably encouraged  the  fearless  Salem  governor 
to  accept  the  position  of  independent  Congregation- 
alism. Probably  the  same  result  would  have  followed 
without  his  visit ;  and  the  wisdom  of  John  Robin- 

1  Palfrey,  i.  296. 

2  Bacon's  Genesis  of  the  New  England  Churches,  p.  463. 
8  Osgood's  Sketch  of  Salem,  p.  5. 


7  8  LIFE   OF   FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

son's  prediction  to  the  Plymouth  men  would  have 
been  vindicated:  "There  will  be  no  difference  be- 
tween the  conformable  ministers  and  you,  when  they 
came  to  the  practice  of  the  ordinances  out  of  the 
kingdom." 1  Yet  so  great  was  the  facility  with 
which  these  new  converts  accepted  the  new  views, 
that  we  must  conclude  that  they  had  simply  ripened 
to  a  position  where  they  would  fall  off  from  the  parent 
church  at  a  single  touch  from  any  one. 

The  nearest  approach  to  a  contemporary  account 
of  this  first  American  ordination  is  to  be  found  in  the 
work  called  "  Morton's  New  England's  Memorial,"  — 
first  published  in  1669,  — inasmuch  as  all  the  earlier 
part  was  professedly  founded  on  the  manuscripts  of 
Governor  Bradford  of  the  Plymouth  Colony,  who  gave 
the  "right  hand  of  fellowship "  at  the  ordination.  Its 
authenticity  is  further  established,  for  this  purpose, 
from  the  fact  that  the  book  had  a  preface  signed  by 
John  Higginson  and  Thomas  Thacher,  the  former 
having  been  almost  old  enough,  at  the  time  of  the 
ordination,  to  be  admitted  to  the  church,  and  having 
doubtless  been  intimately  familiar  with  all  that  took 
place.  Morton's  account  begins  as  follows  :  — 

"  Mr.  Higginson  and  Mr.  Skelton,  in  pursuance  of 
the  ends  of  their  coming  over  into  this  wilderness, 
acquainted  the  Governour,  Mr.  Endicot,  and  the  rest 
of  the  godly  people  whom  they  found  inhabitants  of 
the  place,  and  the  chief  of  the  passengers  that  came 

1  Winslow  in  Young's  Plymouth,  p.  398. 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  ORDINATION.        79 

over  with  them,  with  their  professed  intentions,  and 
consulted  with  them  about  settling  a  reformed  con- 
gregation; from  whom  they  found  a  general  and 
hearty  concurrence,  so  that,  after  some  conference 
together  about  this  matter,  they  pitched  upon  the  6th 
of  August  for  their  entering  into  a  solemn  covenant 
with  God,  and  one  another,  and  also  for  the  ordain- 
ing of  their  ministers ;  of  which  they  gave  notice  to 
the  church  of  Plimouth,  that  being  the  only  church 
that  was  in  the  country  before  them.  The  people 
made  choice  of  Mr.  Skelton  for  their  pastor,  and  Mr. 
Higginson  for  their  teacher.  And  accordingly  it  was 
desired  of  Mr.  Higginson  to  draw  up  a  confession  of 
faith  and  covenant  in  scripture  language  ;  which  being 
done,  was  agreed  upon."  1 

As  this  covenant  was  an  important  event  in  the 
religious  history  of  Puritanism,  it  must  by  no  means 
be  omitted,  especially  as  it  was  the  written  document 
of  this  eventful  day,  and  not  the  spoken  services,  which 
went  on  record.  Cotton  Mather  says  :  "  Mr.  Higgin- 
son drew  up  a  confession  of  faith  with  a  scriptural 
representation  of  the  covenant  of  grace  applied  unto 
the  present  purpose,  whereof  thirty  copies  were  taken 
for  the  thirty  persons  which  were  to  begin  the  working 
of  gathering  the  church."  2  He  gives  the  document 
itself,  as  follows  :  — 


1  Morton's  New  England's  Memorial,  ed.  1826,  p.  14$. 

2  Magnalia,  i.  328,  329. 


8o  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

"  We  Covenant  with  our  Lord,  and  one  with  another ; 
and  we  do  bind  ourselves  in  the  presence  of  God,  to 
walk  together  in  all  his  ways,  according  as  he  is  pleased 
to  reveal  himself  unto  us  in  his  blessed  word  of  truth ; 
and  do  explicitly,  in  the  name  and  fear  of  God,  pro- 
fess and  protest  to  walk  as  followeth,  through  the 
power  and  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

"  We  avouch  the  Lord  to  be  our  God,  and  our  selves 
to  be  his  people,  in  the  truth  and  simplicity  of  our 
spirits. 

"  We  give  our  selves  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
the  word  of  his  grace  for  the  teaching,  ruling  and 
sanctifying  of  us  in  matters  of  worship  and  conversa- 
tion, resolving  to  cleave  unto  him  alone  for  life  and 
glory,  and  to  reject  all  contrary  ways,  canons,  and 
constitutions  of  men  in  his  worship. 

"  We  promise  to  walk  with  our  brethren,  with  all 
watchfulness  and  tenderness,  avoiding  jealousies  and 
suspicions,  back-bitings,  censurings,  provokings,  secret 
risings  of  spirit  against  them ;  but  in  all  offences  to 
follow  the  rule  of  our  Lord  Jesus,  and  to  bear  and  for- 
bear, give  and  forgive,  as  he  hath  taught  us. 

"  In  public  or  private,  we  will  willingly  do  nothing 
to  the  offense  of  the  church ;  but  will  be  willing  to 
take  advice  for  our  selves  and  ours,  as  occasion  shall 
be  presented. 

"  We  will  not  in  the  congregation  be  forward  either 
to  show  our  own  gifts  and  parts  in  speaking  or  scru- 
pling, or  there  discover  the  weakness  or  failings  of  our 
brethren ;  but  attend  an  orderly  call  thereunto,  know- 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  ORDINATION.       8 1 

ing  how  much  the  Lord  may  be  dishonoured,  and  his 
gospel,  and  the  profession  of  it,  slighted  by  our  dis- 
tempers and  weaknesses  in  public. 

"  We  bind  our  selves  to  study  the  advancement  of 
the  gospel  in  all  truth  and  peace ;  both  in  regard  of 
those  that  are  within  or  without ;  no  way  slighting  our 
sister  churches,  but  using  their  counsel,  as  need  shall 
be ;  not  laying  a  stumbling-block  before  any,  no,  not 
the  Indians  whose  good  we  desire  to  promote ;  and 
so  to  converse,  as  we  may  avoid  the  very  appearance 
of  evil. 

"  We  do  hereby  promise  to  carry  our  selves  in  all 
•lawful  obedience  to  those  that  are  over  us,  in  Church 
or  Commonwealth,  knowing  how  well-pleasing  it  will 
be  to  the  Lord,  that  they  should  have  encouragement 
in  their  places,  by  our  not  grieving  their  spirits  through 
our  irregularities. 

"  We  resolve  to  approve  our  selves  to  the  Lord  in 
our  particular  callings ;  shunning  idleness  as  the  bane 
of  any  state  ;  nor  will  we  deal  hardly  or  oppressingly 
with  any,  wherein  we  are  the  Lord's  stewards. 

"  Promising  also  unto  our  best  ability  to  teach  our 
children  and  servants  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  of 
His  Will,  that  they  may  serve  Him  also ;  and  all  this 
not  by  any  strength  of  our  own,  but  by  the  Lord 
Christ :  whose  blood  we  desire  may  sprinkle  this  our 
Covenant  made  in  His  name."1 

i  Magnalia,  i.  66.      It  was  also  reprinted  in  the  notes  to 
Morton's  Memorial   (ed.  1826),  p.  389;   in  Upham's  Dedica- 
tion Sermon,  Nov.  12, 1826,  Appendix  I.,  and  In  the  "  Radical " 
6 


82  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

This  covenant,  whose  whole  tone  is  more  compre- 
hensive and  liberal  than  any  other  similar  document 
of  the  Puritan  period  within  my  knowledge,  was 
superseded  by  one  more  "  explicit, "  as  was  claimed, 
but  less  liberal,  in  1636.  A  full  account  of  this  later 
covenant,  showing  what  parts  of  the  original  document 
are  included  in  it,  has  been  prepared  by  a  later  min- 
ister of  the  First  Church,  the  Rev.  Charles  Wentworth 
Upham.1  But  in  a  previous  discourse  on  a  similar 
occasion  the  same  gentleman,  himself  an  Unitarian, 
had  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  original  covenant 
was  comprehensive  enough  to  cover  everything  which 
claimed  the  Christian  name.  He  says  of  it :  "  Were 
not  the  principles  of  the  Reformation  exhibited  and 
established  in  the  covenant  which  was  drawn  up  and 
adopted  on  this  same  6th  of  August?  A  covenant 
to  which  all  good  Christians  of  every  denomination, 
to  the  end  of  time,  will  be  able  to  subscribe  their 
names,  —  written  in  a  style  of  touching  simplicity 
which  has  seldom  been  equalled,  and  containing  sen- 
timents which  are  felt  to  be  eloquent  by  every  amiable 
and  pious  heart,  and  should  form  the  bond  to  unite 
the  whole  church  on  earth,  as  they  will  unite  the 
church  of  the  Redeemed  in  Heaven.  This  covenant 
might  well  be  adopted  by  all  Congregational  and 
Protestant  churches,  and  it  will  forever  constitute  the 

Magazine,  Boston,  in.  484.     Compare  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  1st 
series,  vi,  283. 

1  Address  at  the  Re-dedication  of  the  First  Church  in  Salem, 
Mass.,  Dec,  8,  1867. 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  ORDINA  TION.       83 

glory,  perpetuate  the  fame,  and  render  precious  the 
memory  of  Francis  Higginson."1 

Another  Salem  clergyman,  writing  earlier  than  Mr. 
Upham,  and  like  him  an  Unitarian  in  opinion,  had 
praised  this  early  covenant  with  a  praise  that  was 
rather  more  finely  discriminated.  Rev.  Dr.  Bentley, 
in  his  "  Description  of  Salem,"  first  published  in  1800, 
said  of  this  statement :  "  It  may  be  esteemed,  if  not 
for  its  theology,  for  its  simplicity.  If  it  speak  not  the 
language  of  a  sect,  it  breathes  the  spirit  of  Christian 
union.  It  never  could  be  intended  so  much  to  display 
opinions,  as  by  writter  obligation  to  fasten  men  to- 
gether. It  is  the  inartificial  range  of  thought  forget- 
ting the  eyes  of  posterity,  and  without  polemic  or 
scholastic  refinement.  It  was  more  an  act  of  piety 
than  of  study.  And  it  was  recollected  afterwards  more 
from  devotion  and  patriotism  than  religious  prejudice. 
It  did  all  the  good  which  was  intended,  and  from  its 
peculiar  character  it  could  not  live  for  the  purposes 
of  superstition." 2  Happy  indeed  was  the  man  who 
could  deserve  such  an  encomium  as  this ;  who  could 
in  that  age  of  religious  hostilities  frame  a  religious 
agreement  which  could  "  fasten  men  together,"  and 
yet  "  could  not  live  for  the  purposes  of  superstition." 
As  Dr.  Bentley  afterward  points  out,  it  was  found  neces- 

1  Principles  of  the  Reformation.     A  sermon  preached  at  the 
dedication  of  the  house  of  public  worship  of  the  First  Congre- 
gational  Society  in   Salem,   Nov.    16,   1826,  by  Charles  W. 
Upham,  Associate  Pastor,  pp.  20,  21. 

2  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vi.  243. 


84  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

sary  to  revise  and  remodel  it,  at  a  later  period,  in  order 
to  obtain  the  necessary  weapons  for  the  Quaker  per- 
secution ;  and  thus  "  the  abuse  of  this  instrument  con- 
signed it  to  the  sole  care  of  the  historian,  who  has 
preserved  it  for  us  as  a  precious  relic  of  antiquity." 

Thus  much  for  the  confession  of  faith  and  the 
covenant.  It  is  still  a  question  how  far  these  were 
distinct  from  each  other ;  and  the  matter  has  formed 
the  subject  of  a  pamphlet  by  the  Rev.  Joseph  B. 
Felt,  with  the  title  "  Did  the  First  Church  of  Salem 
originally  have  a  Confession  of  Faith,  distinct  from 
their  Covenant?"1  For  the  later  ceremonies  of  the 
ordination  —  which  probably  took  place,  Upham 
thinks,  in  the  open  air,2  —  we  must  still  rely  mainly  on 
Morton,  who  gives  but  few  particulars.  He  proceeds 
as  follows :  — 

"  And  because  they  foresaw  that  this  wilderness 
might  be  looked  upon  as  a  place  of  liberty,  and  there- 
fore might  in  time  be  troubled  with  erroneous  spirits, 
therefore  they  did  put  in  one  article  into  the  confes- 
sion of  faith,  on  purpose,  about  the  duty  and  power 
of  the  magistrate  in  matters  of  religion.8  Thirty 
copies  of  the  aforesaid  confession  of  faith  and  cove- 

1  Boston,  1856  (pp.  28). 

2  Upham 's  Address  at  the  Re-dedication,  etc.,  p.  38. 

3  This  is  one  of  many  things  in  Puritan  and  Colonial  his- 
tory which  contradict  the  theory  of  absolute  subjection  of  civil 
to  ecclesiastical  power  in  early  New  England,  as  advocated  by 
Brooks   Adams  in  his  lively  work,   "  The   Emancipation   of 
Massachusetts." 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  ORDINATION.        85 

nant  being  written  out  for  the  use  of  thirty  persons 
who  were  to  begin  the  work.  When  the  6th  of  August 
came,  it  was  kept  as  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer,  in 
which,  after  the  sermons  and  prayers  of  the  two  min- 
isters, in  the  end  of  the  day,  the  aforesaid  confession 
of  faith  and  covenant  being  solemnly  read,  the  fore- 
named  persons  did  solemnly  profess  their  consent 
thereunto ;  and  then  proceeded  to  the  ordaining  of 
Mr.  Skelton  pastor  and  Mr.  Higginson  teacher  of  the 
church  there.  Mr.  Bradford  the  Governour  of  Pli- 
mouth,  and  some  others  with  him,  coming  by  sea, 
were  hindered  by  cross  winds,  that  they  could  not  be 
there  at  the  beginning  of  the  day,  but  they  came  into 
the  assembly  afterward,  and  gave  them  the  right  hand 
of  fellowship,  wishing  all  prosperity,  and  a  blessed 
succession  of  such  good  beginnings.  After  which,  at 
several  times,  many  others  joined  to  the  church  in 
the  same  way."  1 

Had  the  impetuous  and  fearless  Endicott,  the  day 
after  this  remarkable  ordination,  found  it  his  duty  to 
report  upon  it  to  some  high  English  official,  he  might 
well  have  anticipated,  for  the  purpose,  the  celebrated 
despatch  sent  by  Charles  Francis  Adams  to  Earl 
Russell,  in  respect  to  the  Confederate  iron-clads, 
"  It  would  be  superfluous  for  me  to  point  out  to  your 
Lordship  that  this  is  war."  If  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land stood  for  sacerdotalism  —  and  no  one  can  assert 
that  at  that  period  it  did  not  —  then  Francis  Higgin- 
1  New  England's  Memorial  (ed.  1826),  pp.  145,  146. 


86  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

son  and  his  colleague  separated  themselves  from  it 
almost  as  absolutely  and  finally  as  if  they  had  become 
followers  of  George  Fox.  They  took  indeed  a  more 
advanced  attitude  than  their  successors  could  maintain ; 
and  "  after  the  sacerdotal  idea  —  that  ordination  is  a 
sacrament,  and,  like  baptism,  must  not  be  repeated  — 
had  begun  to  be  entertained  in  New  England,  this 
double  ordination  became  a  stumbling-block  to  the 
churches."  "  The  fact  is,"  adds  Leonard  Bacon, 
from  whom  I  am  quoting,  "  that  Higginson,  Skelton, 
and  all  the  first  fathers  of  the  New  England  churches, 
repudiated  the  sacerdotal  idea  entirely.  They  ac- 
knowledged no  ordination  at  large.  They  admitted 
no  such  distinction  as  is  now  made  between  ordina- 
tion and  installation.  If  a  man  had  been  ordained 
by  bishops  in  England,  that  was  to  them  no  rea- 
son why  he  should  not  be .  ordained  again  and  again, 
with  imposition  of  hands,  so  often  as  he  was  to  be 
inducted  into  office  in  any  church.  They  were 
right,  unless  sacerdotalism  is  the  right  theory  of 
Christianity."  x 

A  curious  event  which  occurred  during  this  ordi- 
nation, and  afterward  secured  to  the  colony  one  of 
its  best  military  leaders,  is  described  by  several  of 
the  early  writers.  Scottow  says  of  this  unexpected 
convert  that  "  he  was  no  Debauchee,  but  of  a  Jocund 
Temper,  and  one  of  the  Merry  Mounts  Society,  who 
chose  rather  to  Dance  about  a  May-pole,  first  erected 

1  Bacon's  Genesis  of  the  New  England  Churches,  p.  476, 
note. 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  ORDINATION.       87 

to  the  honour  of  Strumpet  Flora,  than  to  hear  a  good 
Sermon,"  but  that  he  "afterwards  was  the  Chieftain 
and  Flower  of  New- England's  Militia,  and  an  Emi- 
nent Instrument  both  in  Church  and  Common- 
wealth." *  And  Cotton  Mather  describes  the  occasion 
more  fully :  — 

"  By  the  same  token,  that  at  this  first  church  gather- 
ing, there  fell  out  a  remarkable  matter  which  is  now 
to  be  related.  At  a  time  when  the  church  was  to  be 
gathered  at  Salem,  there  was  about  thirty  miles  to  the 
southward  of  that  place,  a  plantation  of  rude,  lewd, 
mad,  English  people,  who  did  propose  to  them  selves 
a  gainful  trade  with  the  Indians,  but  quickly  came  to 
nothing.  A  young  gentleman  belonging  to  that  plan- 
tation being  at  Salem,  on  the  day  when  the  church 
was  gathered,  was  at  what  he  saw  and  heard,  so  deeply 
affected,  that  he  stood  up,  expressing  with  much  affec- 
tion, his  desire  to  be  admitted  into  their  number, 
which  when  they  demurred  about,  he  desired  that 
they  would  at  least  admit  him  to  make  his  profession 
before  them.  When  they  allowed  this,  he  expressed 
himself  so  agreeably,  and  with  so  much  ingenuity  and 
simplicity,  that  they  were  extreamly  pleased  with  it ; 
and  the  ministers  told  him,  that  they  highly  approved 
of  his  profession,  but  inasmuch  as  he  was  a  stranger  to 
them,  they  could  not  receive  him  into  their  commun- 
ion, until  they  had  a  further  acquaintance  with  his 
conversation.  However,  such  was  the  hold  which 

1  Scottow  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  xxxiv.  289. 


88  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

the  grace  of  God  now  took  of  him,  that  he  became 
an  eminent  Christian,  and  a  worthy  and  useful  person, 
and  not  only  afterwards  joined  unto  the  church  of 
Boston,  but  also  made  a  great  figure  in  the  common- 
wealth of  New-England,  as  the  major-general  of  all 
the  forces  in  the  colony;  it  was  Major-general 
Gibbons."  l 

1  Magnalia,  i.  329. 


"  NE  W  ENGLAND  >S  PLANTA  TION."          89 


IX. 

"NEW   ENGLAND'S   PLANTATION." 

Here  reade  the  truth  .  .  .  without  any  frothy  bombasting  words,  or 
any  quaint,  new-devised  additions.  —  MICHAEL  SPARKS,  Publisher. 

THE  little  book  called  "  New  England's  Plantation  " 
was  a  continuation  of  the  "  Journal  of  the  Voyage," 
was  sent  later  to  England,  and  had,  unlike  the  other, 
an  immediate  introduction  to  the  public  by  way  of 
print.  It  was  probably  sent  home  on  the  return  of 
the  "  Four  Sisters  "  and  the  "  Mayflower," *  which 
reached  England  before  Nov.  20,  1629.*  An  introduc- 
tion addressed  "To  the  reader,"  and  signed  "  M.  S.," 
—  proceeding  doubtless  from  Michael  Sparks  the 
publisher,  —  says  that  it  was  "  not  intended  for  the 
presse,"  but  was  sent  to  some  friends  in  England. 
"  Here  reade  the  truth,"  he  says,  "without  any  frothy 
bombasting  words,  or  any  quaint,  new-devised  addi- 
tions." The  name  of  the  author  does  not  appear 
in  the  first  edition,  but  was  added  later.  It  went 
through  three  editions,  with  but  trifling  modifications, 
in  a  single  year.  It  has  been  several  times  reprinted,  — 

1  This  was  the  historic  "  Mayflower,"  which  thus  took  part 
in  founding  both  the  Plymouth  and  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
colonies. 

2  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts,  pp.  107,  242. 


QO  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

in  Force's  "Tracts,"  vol.  i.  no.  12,  in  the  "  Collections 
of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,"  vol.  i.,  and 
again  in  Young's  "  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts ;  " 
in  the  last  case  with  the  spelling  modernized.1  The 
Harvard  College  Library  possesses  two  copies  of  the 
first  London  edition;  the  Boston  Public  Library  has 
the  second  and  third  editions,  and  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society  the  third.  The  following  is  the 
title  of  the  third  edition,  which  is  here  followed  :  — 

NEW-ENGLANDS   PLANTATION. 

Or,  a  short  and  true  DESCRIPTION  of  the  Commodities 
and  Discommodities  of  that  countrey.  Written  by  Mr. 
HIGGESON,  a  Reuerend  Diuine,  now  there  resident. 
Whereunto  is  added  a  Letter,  sent  by  Mr.  GRAUES 
an  Enginere  out  of  New- England.  The  third  edi- 
tion^ enlarged,  London,  1630. 

"  Letting  passe  our  voyage  by  sea,  we  will  now  begin 
our  discourse  on  the  shore  of  New-England.  And 
because  the  life  and  wel-fare  of  every  creature  heere  be- 
low, and  the  commcdiousnesse  of  the  countrey  whereat 
such  creatures  live,  doth  by  the  most  wise  ordering  of 
God's  providence,  depend  next  unto  himselfe,  upon 
the  temperature  and  disposition  of  the  foure  elements, 
earth,  water,  aire,  and  fire  (for  as  of  the  mixture  of 
all  these,  all  sublunary  things  are  composed ;  so  by 
the  more  or  lesse  enjoyment  of  the  wholesome  temper 

1  Some  extracts  from  it  have  also  been  reprinted,  with  mod- 
ernized spelling,  in  "  The  Young  Folks'  Book  of  American 
Explorers"  (Boston). 


«  NE  W  ENGLAND  >S  PLANTA  TION."          9  x 

and  convenient  use  of  these,  consisteth  the  onely  well- 
being  both  of  man  and  beast  in  a  more  or  lesse  com- 
fortable measure  in  all  countreys  under  the  heavens) 
therefore  I  will  indeavour  to  shew  you  what  New- 
England  is  by  the  consideration  of  each  of  these 
apart,  and  truly  indeavour  by  God's  helpe  to  report 
nothing  but  the  naked  truth,  and  that  both  to  tell  you 
of  the  discommodities  as  well  as  of  the  commodi- 
ties, though  as  the  idle  proverbe  is,  travellers  may  lye 
by  authoritie^  and  so  may  take  too  much  sinfull  libertie 
that  way.  Yet  I  may  say  of  my  selfe  as  once  Nehe- 
miah  did  in  another  case  :  Shall  such  a  man  as  I  lye? 
No  verily :  it  becometh  not  a  preacher  of  truth  to 
be  a  writer  of  falshod  in  any  degree :  And  therefore 
I  have  beene  carefull  to  report  nothing  of  New- 
England  but  what  I  have  partly  scene  with  mine 
own  eyes,  and  partly  heard  and  enquired  from  the 
mouths  of  verie  honest  and  religious  persons,  who, 
by  living  in  the  countrey  a  good  space  of  time, 
have  had  experience  and  knowledge  of  the  state 
thereof,  and  whose  testimonies  I  doe  beleeve  as  my 
selfe." 

He  begins  by  describing  (i)  the  earth  of  New 
England :  — 

"  First  therefore  of  the  earth  of  New-England  and 
all  the  appertenances  thereof :  It  is  a  land  of  divers 
and  sundry  sorts  all  about  Masathulets  Bay,  and  at 
Charles  river  is  as  fat  blacke  earth  as  can  be  scene 
any  where  :  and  in  other  places  you  have  a  clay  soyle, 


92 


LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 


in  other  gravell,  in  other  sandy,  as  it  is  all  about  our 
plantation  at  Salem,  for  so  our  towne  is  now  named, 
Psal.  76.  2. 

"  The  forme  of  the  earth  here  in  the  superfices  of 
it  is  neither  too  flat  in  the  plainnesse,  nor  too  high  in 
hils,  but  partakes  of  both  in  a  mediocritie,  and  fit  for 
pasture,  or  for  plow  or  meddow  ground,  as  men  please 
to  employ  it :  though  all  the  countrey  bee  as  it  were  a 
thicke  wood  for  the  generall,  yet  in  divers  places  there 
is  much  ground  cleared  by  the  Indians,  and  especially 
about  the  plantation  :  And  I  am  told  that  about  three 
miles  from  us  a  man  may  stand  on  a  little  hilly  place 
and  see  divers  thousands  of  acres  of  ground  as  good 
as  need  to  be,  and  not  a  tree  in  the  same.  It  is 
thought  here  is  good  clay  to  make  bricke  and  tyles 
and  earthen-pot  as  need  to  be.  At  this  instant  we 
are  setting  a  brick-kill  on  worke  to  make  brickes  and 
tiles  for  the  building  of  our  houses.  For  stone,  here  is 
plentie  of  slates  at  the  Isle  of  Slate  in  Masathulets  bay, 
and  lime-stone,  free-stone,  and  smooth-stone,  and  iron- 
stone, and  marble-stone  also  in  such  store,  that  we 
have  great  rocks  of  it,  and  a  harbour  hard  by.  Our 
plantation  is  from  thence  called  Marble -harbour. 

"  Of  minerals  there  hath  yet  beene  but  little  triall 
made,  yet  we  are  not  without  great  hope  of  being 
furnished  in  that  soyle. 

"  The  fertilitie  of  the  soyle  is  to  be  admired  at,  as 
appeareth  in  the  aboundance  of  grasse  that  groweth 
everie  where,  both  verie  thicke,  verie  long,  and  verie 
high  in  divers  places  :  But  it  groweth  verie  wildly  with 


"  NE  W  ENGLAND 'S  PL  A  NT  A  TION."          93 

a  great  stalke  and  a  broad  and  ranker  blade,  because 
it  never  had  been  eaten  with  cattle,  nor  mowed  with 
a  sythe,  and  seldome  trampled  on  by  foot.  It  is  scarce 
to  bee  beleeved  how  our  kine  and  goates,  horses  and 
hogges,  doe  thrive  and  prosper  here  and  like  well  of 
this  countrey. 

"  In  our  plantation  we  have  already  a  quart  of  milke 
for  a  penny :  but  the  aboundant  increase  of  corne 
proves  this  countrey  to  bee  a  wonderment.  Thirtie, 
fortie,  fiftie,  sixtie  are  ordinarie  here  :  Yea  Joseph's 
encrease  in  ^Egypt  is  out-stript  here  with  us.  Our 
planters  hope  to  have  more  then  a  hundred  fould  this 
yere  :  And  all  this  while  I  am  within  compasse ;  what 
will  you  say  of  two  hundred  fould  and  upwards?  It 
is  almost  incredible  what  great  gaine  some  of  our 
English  planters  have  had  by  our  Indian  corne.  Cred- 
ible persons  have  assured  me,  and  the  partie  himselfe 
avouched  the  truth  of  it  to  me,  that  of  the  setting  of 
13  gallons  of  corne  hee  hath  had  encrease  of  it  52 
hogsheads,  every  hogshead  holding  seven  bushels  of 
London  measure,  and  every  bushell  was  by  him  sold 
and  trusted  to  the  Indians  for  so  much  beaver  as  was 
worth  1 8  shillings ;  and  so  of  this  13  gallons  of  corne, 
which  was  worth  6  shillings  8  pence,  he  made  about 
327  pounds  of  it  in  the  yeere  following,  as  by  reckon- 
ing will  appeare  :  where  you  may  see  how  God  blessed 
husbandry  in  this  land.  There  is  not  such  greate  and 
plentifull  eares  of  corne  I  suppose  any  where  else  to 
bee  found  but  in  this  countrey :  Because  also  of 
varietie  of  colours,  as  red,  blew,  and  yellow,  &c.  and 


94 


LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 


of  one  corne  there  springeth  four  or  five  hundred.  I 
have  sent  you  many  eares  of  divers  colours  that  you 
might  see  the  truth  of  it. 

"  Little  children  here  by  setting  of  corne  may  earne 
much  more  then  their  owne  maintenance. 

"  They  have  tryed  our  English  corne  at  New  Plim- 
mouth  plantation,  so  that  all  our  several  graines  will 
grow  here  verie  well,  and  have  a  fitting  soyle  for  their 
nature. 

"  Our  Governor  hath  store  of  greene  pease  growing 
in  his  garden,  as  good  as  ever  I  eat  in  England. 

"  This  country  aboundeth  naturally  with  store  of 
roots  of  great  varietie  and  good  to  eat.  Our  turnips, 
parsnips,  and  carrots  are  here  both  bigger  and  sweeter 
then  is  ordinary  to  be  found  in  England.  Here  are 
store  of  pumpions,  cowcombers,  and  other  things  of 
that  nature  which  I  know  not.  Also  divers  excellent 
pot-herbs  grow  abundantly  among  the  grasse,  as  straw- 
berrie  leaves  in  all  places  of  the  countrey,  and  plenty 
of  strawberries  in  their  time,  and  pennyroyall,  win- 
tersaverie,  sorrell,  brookelime,  liverwort,  carvell,  and 
watercresses,  also  leekes  and  onions  are  ordinarie, 
and  divers  physicall  herbs.  Here  are  also  aboundance 
of  other  sweet  herbs  delightful  to  the  smell,  whose 
names  we  know  not,  &c.  and  plentie  of  single  damaske 
roses  verie  sweete ;  and  two  kinds  of  herbes  that  bare 
two  kinds  of  flowers  very  sweet,  which  they  say,  are  as 
good  to  make  cordage  or  cloath  as  any  hempe  or  flaxe 
we  have. 

"  Excellent  vines  are  here  up  and  downe  in  the 


"NEW  ENGLAND' }S  PLANTATION." 


95 


woods.  Our  Governour  hath  already  planted  a  vine- 
yard with  great  hope  of  encrease. 

"Also,  mulberries,  plums,  raspberries,  corrance, 
chesnuts,  filberds,  walnuts,  smalnuts,  hurtleberries, 
and  hawes  of  whitethorne  neere  as  good  as  our  cherries 
in  England,  they  grow  in  plentie  here. 

"  For  wood  there  is  no  better  in  the  world  I  thinke, 
here  being  foure  sorts  of  oke  differing  both  in  the 
leafe,  timber,  and  colour,  all  excellent  good.  Ttere 
is  also  good  ash,  elme,  willow,  birch,  beech,  saxafras, 
juniper,  cipres,  cedar,  spruce,  pines,  and  firre  that  will 
yeeld  abundance  of  turpentine,  pitch,  tarre,  masts, 
and  other  materials  for  building  both  of  ships  and 
houses.  Also  here  are  store  of  sumacke  trees,  they 
are  good  for  dying  and  tanning  of  leather,  likewise 
such  trees  yeeld  a  precious  gem  called  wine  benjamin, 
that  they  say  is  excellent  for  perfumes.  Also  here  be 
divers  roots  and  berries  wherewith  the  Indians  dye  ex- 
cellent holding  colours  that  no  raine  nor  washing  can 
alter.  Also,  wee  have  materials  to  make  sope-ashes 
and  salt-peter  in  aboundance. 

"  For  beasts  there  are  some  beares,  and  they  say 
some  lyons  also;  for  they  have  been  seen  at  Cape 
Anne.  Also  here  are  several  sorts  of  deere,  some 
whereof  bring  three  or  foure  young  ones  at  once, 
which  is  not  ordinarie  in  England.  Also  wolves,  foxes, 
beavers,  otters,  martins,  great  wild  cats,  and  a  great 
beast  called  a  molke  as  bigge  as  an  oxe.  I  have  seen 
the  skins  of  all  these  beasts  since  I  came  to  this  plan- 
tation excepting  lyons.  Also  here  are  great  store  of 


9 6  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

squerrels,  some  greater,  and  some  smaller  and  lesser : 
there  are  some  of  the  lesser  sort,  they  tell  me,  that  by 
a  certaine  skill  will  fly  from  tree  to  tree,  though  they 
stand  farre  distant." 

The  impression  prevailed  for  a  long  time,  in  different 
parts  of  America,  that  lions  were  to  be  found  on  this 
continent;  thus,  John  Josselyn,  in  his  "Account  of 
Two  Voyages  to  America"  (1675),  speaks  by  report 
of "  a  young  lion  (not  long  before)  killed  at  Piscata- 
way  by  an  Indian." 1  But  I  take  a  certain  satisfaction 
in  the  care  shown  by  Francis  Higginson  to  discrimi- 
nate what  rested  on  general  rumour  only  from  what  he 
knew  by  the  evidence  of  his  senses :  "  I  have  seen 
the  skins  of  all  these  beasts  since  I  came  to  this  plan- 
tation excepting  lyons." 

He  next  considers  (2)  the  waters  of  New  England  : 

Of  the  waters  of  New-England,  with  the  things  belonging 
to  the  same. 

"  New- England  hath  water  enough,  both  salt  and 
fresh,  the  greatest  sea  in  the  world,  the  Atlanticke 
sea,  runs  all  along  the  coast  thereof.  There  are  abun- 
dance of  Hands  along  the  shore,  some  full  of  wood 
and  masts  to  feed  'swine ;  and  others  cleere  of  wood, 
and  fruitful  to  bear  corne.  Also  wee  have  store  of  ex- 
cellent harbours  for  ships,  as  at  Cape  Anne,  and  at 
Masathulets  Bay,  and  at  Salem,  and  at  many  other 

1  Stedman  and  Hutchinson's  Library  of  American  Litera- 
ture, i.  428. 


«  NE  W  ENGLAND  'S  PLANTA  TION."         9  7 

places  :  and  they  are  the  better  because  for  strangers 
there  is  a  verie  difficult  and  dangerous  passage  into 
them,  but  unto  such  as  are  well  acquainted  with  them, 
they  are  easie  and  safe  enough.  The  aboundance  of 
sea-fish  are  almost  beyond  beleeving,  and  sure  I 
should  scarce  have  beleeved  it,  except  I  had  seene 
it  with  mine  owne  eyes.  I  saw  great  store  of  whales, 
and  crampusse,  and  such  aboundance  of  mackerils 
that  it  would  astonish  one  to  behold,  likewise  cod- 
fish in  aboundance  on  the  coast,  and  in  their  season 
are  plentifully  taken.  There  is  a  fish  called  a  basse, 
a  most  sweet  and  wholesome  fish  as  ever  I  did  eate,  it 
is  altogether  as  good  as  our  fresh  sammon,  and  the 
season  of  their  comming  was  begun  when  wee  came  first 
to  New-England  in  June,  and  so  continued  about  three 
months  space.  Of  this  fish  our  fishers  take  many  hun- 
dreds together,  which  I  have  seen  lying  on  the  shore 
to  my  admiration ;  yea  their  nets  ordinarily  take  more 
than  they  are  able  to  hale  to  land,  and  for  want  of 
boats  and  men  they  are  constrained  to  let  a  many 
goe  after  they  have  taken  them,  and  yet  sometimes 
they  fill  two  boates  at  a  time  with  them.  And  besides 
basse  wee  take  plentie  of  scate  and  thornbacks,  and 
abundance  of  lobsters  and  the  least  boy  in  the  plan- 
tation may  both  catch  and  eat  what  he  will  of  them. 
For  my  owne  part  I  was  soone  cloyed  with  them,  they 
were  so  great,  and  fat,  and  lussious.  I  have  seene  some 
myselfe  that  have  weighed  16  pound,  but  others  have 
had  divers  times  so  great  lobsters  as  have  weighed  25 
pound,  as  they  assure  mee.  Also  heere  is  abundance 
7 


98  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

of  herring,  turbut,  sturgion,  cuskes,  hadocks,  mullets, 
eeles,  crabbes,  muskles,  and  oysters.  Besides  there 
is  probability  that  the  countrey  is  of  an  excellent  tem- 
per for  the  making  of  salt :  For  since  our  comming 
our  fishermen  have  brought  home  very  good  salt 
which  they  found  candied  by  the  standing  of  the  sea 
water  and  the  heat  of  the  sunne,  upon  a  rocke  by  the 
sea  shore  :  and  in  divers  salt  marishes  that  some  have 
gone  through,  they  have  found  some  salt  in  some 
places  crushing  under  their  feete  and  cleaving  to 
their  shooes. 

"And  as  for  fresh  water,  the  countrey  is  full  of 
dainty  springs,  and  some  great  rivers,  and  some  lesser 
brookes ;  and  at  Masathulets  Bay  they  digged  wels  and 
found  water  at  three  foot  deepe  in  most  places  :  And 
neere  Salem  they  have  as  fine  cleare  water  as  we  can  de- 
sire, and  we  may  digge  wels  and  find  water  where  we  list. 

"  Thus  wee  see  both  land  and  sea  abound  with  store 
of  blessings  for  the  comfortable  sustenance  of  man's 
life  in  New-England." 

It  shows  again  the  careful  observation  of  this  writer 
that  Gould,  in  his  Report  on  the  Invertebrata  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, gives  the  maximum  size  of  lobsters  on  the 
Massachusetts  shore  as  twenty-eight  pounds.  The 
striped  bass,  which  he  commemorates,  has  given  its 
name  to  the  Bass  Rocks,  not  many  miles  north  of  the 
point  where  Higginson  was  writing,  although  the  supply 
of  the  fish  has  now  greatly  diminished. 

He  next  describes  (3)  the  New  England  air :  — 


"NEW  ENGLAND'S  PLANTATION." 


99 


Of  the  aire  of  New-England  with  the  temper  and  crea- 
tures in  it. 

"  The  temper  of  the  aire  of  New- England  is  one 
speciall  thing  that  commends  this  place.  Experience 
doth  manifest  that  there  is  hardly  a  more  healthfull 
place  to  be  found  in  the  world  that  agreeth  better 
with  our  English  bodyes.  Many  that  have  beene 
weeke  and  sickly  in  old  England,  by  comming  hither 
have  beene  thoroughly  healed  and  growne  healthfull 
strong.  For  here  is  an  extraordinarie  cleere  and  dry 
aire  that  is  of  a  most  healing  nature  to  all  such  as  are 
of  a  cold,  melancholy,  flegmatick,  rheumatick  temper 
of  body.  None  can  more  truly  speake  hereof  by 
their  owne  experience  then  my  selfe.  My  friends  that 
knew  me  can  well  tell  how  verie  sickly  I  have  bin 
and  continually  in  physick,  being  much  troubled  with 
a  tormenting  paine  through  an  extraordinarie  weak- 
nesse  of  my  stomacke,  and  aboundance  of  melancho- 
licke  humors ;  but  since  I  came  hither  on  this  voyage, 
I  thanke  God,  I  have  had  perfect  health,  and  freed 
from  paine  and  vomiting,  having  a  stomacke  to  digest 
the  hardest  and  coursest  fare,  who  before  could  not 
eat  finest  meat;  and  whereas  my  stomache  could 
onely  digest  and  did  require  such  drinke  as  was  both 
strong  and  stale,  now  I  can  and  doe  often  times  drink 
New- England  water  verie  well ;  and  I  that  have  not 
gone  without  a  cap  for  many  yeeres  together,  neither 
durst  leave  off  the  same,  have  now  cast  away  my  cap, 
and  doe  weare  none  at  all  in  the  day  time :  And 


I0o  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

whereas  beforetime  I  cloathed  my  selfe  with  double 
cloaths  and  thicke  waistcoates  to  keepe  me  warme, 
even  in  the  summer  time,  I  doe  now  goe  as  thin  clad 
as  any,  onely  wearing  a  light  stuffe  cassocke  upon  my 
shirt,  and  stuffe  breeches  of  one  thicknesse  without 
linings.  Besides  I  have  one  of  my  children  that  was 
formerly  most  lamentably  handled  with  sore  breaking 
out  of  both  his  hands  and  feet  of  the  king's-evill, 
but  since  he  came  hither  hee  is  very  well  ever  he  was, 
and  there  is  hope  of  perfect  recoverie  shortly  even  by 
the  very  wholesomnesse  of  the  aire,  altering,  digest- 
ing and  drying  up  the  cold  and  crude  humours  of  the 
body :  And  therefore  I  thinke  it  is  a  wise  course  for  al 
cold  complections  to  come  to  take  physick  in  New- 
England  :  for  a  sup  of  New- England's  aire  is  better 
then  a  whole  draught  of  Old  England's  ale. 

"  In  the  summer  time,  in  the  midst  of  July  and 
August,  it  is  a  good  deale  hotter  then  in  Old  Eng- 
land :  And  in  winter,  January  and  February  are  much 
colder,  as  they  say :  But  the  spring  and  autumne  are 
of  a  middle  temper. 

"  Fowles  of  the  aire  are  plentifull  here,  and  of  all 
sorts  as  we  have  in  England,  as  farre  as  I  can  learn, 
and  a  great  many  of  strange  fowles  which  we  know 
not.  Whilst  I  was  writing  these  things,  cne  of  our 
men  brought  home  an  eagle  which  hee  had  killed  in 
the  wood  :  They  say  they  are  good  meate.  Also  here 
are  many  kinds  of  excellent  hawkes,  both  sea  hawkes 
and  land  hawkes  :  And  my  self  walking  in  the  woods 
with  another  in  company,  sprung  a  patridge  so  bigge 


"  NE  W  ENGLAND 'S  PLANTA  TION."        i o I 

that  through  the  heavinesse  of  his  body  could  fly  but 
a  little  way  :  They  that  have  killed  them,  say  they  are 
as  bigge  as  our  hens.  Here  are  likewise  aboundance 
of  turkies  often  killed  in  the  woods,  farre  greater  then 
our  English  turkies,  and  exceeding  fat,  sweet,  and 
fleshy,  for  here  they  have  aboundance  of  feeding  all 
the  yeere  long,  as  strawberries,  in  summer  al  places 
are  full  of  them,  and  all  manner  of  berries  and  fruits. 
In  the  winter  time  I  have  seene  flockes  of  pidgeons, 
and  have  eaten  of  them :  They  doe  fly  from  tree  to 
tree  as  other  birds  doe,  which  our  pidgeons  will  not 
doe  in  England :  They  are  of  all  colours  as  ours  are, 
but  their  wings  and  tayles  are  far  longer,  and  there- 
fore it  is  likely  they  fly  swifter  to  escape  the  terrible 
hawkes  in  this  country.  In  winter  time  this  country 
doth  abound  with  wild  geese,  wild  ducks,  and  other 
sea  fowle,  that  a  great  part  of  winter  the  planters  have 
eaten  nothing  but  roast-meate  of  divers  fowles  which 
they  have  killed." 

Wild  turkeys  and  flocks  of  wild  pigeons  are  no 
longer  to  be  seen  in  Massachusetts,  but  they  were  once 
common.  Francis  Higginson's  exultation  in  his  own 
improved  health  was  however  premature. 

He  next  proceeds  to  complete  his  narrative,  with 
some  ingenuity,  by  adding  the  fourth  element,  that  of 
fire:  — 

"  Thus  you  have  heard  of  the  earth,  water  and  aire 
of  New-England,  now  it  may  bee  you  expect  some- 
thing to  bee  said  of  the  fire  proportionable  to  the  rest 


102  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

of  the  elements.  Indeede  I  thinke  New-England  may 
boast  of  this  element  more  then  of  all  the  rest :  For 
though  it  bee  here  somewhat  cold  in  the  winter,  yet 
here  we  have  plenty  of  fire  to  warme  us,  and  that  a 
great  deal  cheaper  then  they  sel  billets  and  faggots  in 
London :  Nay,  all  Europe  is  not  able  to  afford  to  make 
so  great  fires  as  New-England.  A  poore  servant  here 
that  is  to  possesse  but  50  acres  of  land,  may  afford  to 
give  more  wood  for  timber  and  fire  as  good  as  the 
world  yeelds,  then  many  noble  men  in  England  can 
afford  to  do.  Here  is  good  living  for  those  that  love 
good  fires.  And  although  New-England  have  no 
tallow  to  make  candles  of,  yet  by  the  aboundance  of 
the  fish  thereof,  it  can  afford  oil  for  lampes.  Yea  our 
pine-trees  that  are  the  most  plentifull  of  all  wood, 
doth  allow  us  plenty  of  candles  which  are  very  usefull 
in  a  house  :  And  they  are  such  candles  as  the  Indians 
commonly  use,  having  no  other,  and  they  are  nothing 
else  but  the  wood  of  the  pine  tree  cloven  in  two  little 
slices,  something  thin,  which  are  so  full  of  the  moys- 
ture  of  turpentine  and  pitch,  that  they  burne  as  cleere 
as  a  torch.  I  have  sent  you  some  of  them  that  you 
may  see  the  experience  of  them." 

Having  thus  sung  the  praises  of  the  New  World,  he 
proceeds,  in  a  spirit  of  candour,  to  admit  some  of  its 
drawbacks  :  — 

"  Thus  of  New-England's  commodities :  now  I  will 
tell  you  of  some  discommodities  that  are  here  to  be 
found. 


"  NE  W  ENGLAND  'S  PLANTA  TION." 


I03 


"  First,  in  the  summer  season  for  these  three  months, 
June,  July,  and  August,  we  are  troubled  much  with 
little  flyes  called  musketoes,  being  the  same  they  are 
troubled  with  in  Lincolneshire  and  the  Fens ;  and  they 
are  nothing  but  gnats,  which  except  they  bee  smoked 
out  of  their  houses  are  troublesome  in  the  night 
season. 

"  Secondly,  in  the  winter  season  for  two  months 
space,  the  earth  is  commonly  covered  with  snow,  which 
is  accompanied  with  sharp  biting  frosts,  something 
more  sharpe  then  is  in  Old  England,  and  therefore 
are  forced  to  make  great  fires. 

"  Thirdly,  the  countrey  being  very  full  of  woods,  and 
wildernesses,  doth  also  much  abound  with  snakes  and 
serpents  of  strange  colours,  and  huge  greatnesse :  yea 
there  are  some  serpents  called  rattle-snakes  that  have 
rattles  in  their  tailes,  that  will  not  fly  from  a  man  as 
others  will,  but  will  flye  upon  him,  and  sting  him  so 
mortally,  that  hee  will  dye  within  a  quarter  of  an  houre 
after,  except  the  partie  stinged  have  about  him  some 
of  the  root  of  an  herbe  called  snake-weed 1  to  bite  on, 
and  then  hee  shall  receive  no  harme  :  but  yet  seldom 
falles  it  out  that  any  hurt  is  done  by  these.  About 
three  years  since,  an  Indian  was  stung  to  death  by 
one  of  them,  but  wee  heard  of  none  since  that 
time. 

"  Fourthly  and  lastly,  here  wants  as  it  were  good 
company  of  honest  Christians  to  bring  with  them  horses, 

1  Probably  either  Sanicula  Canadensis  or  Marilandica  (Gray), 
the  two  species  of  sanicle,  or  black  snakeroot. 


104  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

kine,  and  sheepe,  to  make  use  of  this  fruitful!  land ; 
great  pitty  it  is  to  see  so  much  good  ground  for  corne 
and  for  grasse  as  any  is  under  the  heavens,  to  ly 
altogether  unoccupied,  when  so  many  honest  men  and 
their  families  in  Old  England  through  the  populous- 
nesse  thereof,  do  make  very  hard  shift  to  live  one  by 
the  other.'1 

He  next  proceeds  to  speak  of  the  aboriginal  inhab- 
itants, giving  an  account  which,  so  far  as  it  goes,  is 
trustworthy.  There  is  a  touch  of  humour  in  his  sug- 
gestion that  the  "love-lock"  then  worn  in  England 
may  have  been  a  fashion  imported  from  America. 

"  Now,  thus  you  know  what  New- England  is,  as  also 
with  the  commodities  and  discommodities  thereof: 
Now  I  will  shew  you  a  little  of  the  inhabitants  thereof, 
and  their  government. 

"  For  their  governors  they  have  kings,  which  they 
call  Saggamores,  some  greater,  and  some  lesser,  ac- 
cording to  the  number  of  their  subjects. 

"  The  greatest  Saggamores  about  us  can  not  make 
above  three  hundred  men,1  and  other  lesse  Saggamores 
have  not  above  fifteen  subjects,  and  others  neere 
about  us  but  two. 

"  Their  subjects  above  twelve  years  since 2  were 
swept  away  by  a  great  and  grievous  plague  that  was 
amongst  them,  so  that  there  are  verie  few  left  to 
inhabite  the  country. 

1  That  is,  fighting  men.  2  1617. 


«'  NE  W-ENGLAND  *S  PLANTA  TION?' 


105 


"  The  Indians  are  not  able  to  make  use  of  the  one 
fourth  part  of  the  land,  neither  have  they  any  settled 
places,  as  townes  to  dwell  in,  nor  any  ground  as  they 
challenge  for  their  own  possession,  but  change  their 
habitation  from  place  to  place. 

"  For  their  statures,  they  are  a  tall  and  strong  limmed 
people,  their  colours  are  tawney,  they  goe  naked,  save 
onely  they  are  in  part  covered  with  beasts  skins  on  one 
of  their  shoulders,  and  weare  something  before  their 
privities ;  their  haire  is  generally  blacke,  and  cut 
before,  like  our  gentelewomen,  and  one  locke  longer 
than  the  rest,  much  like  to  our  gentelmen,  which 
fashion  I  thinke  came  from  hence  into  England. 

"  For  their  weapons,  they  have  bowes  and  arrowes, 
some  of  them  headed  with  bone,  and  some  with  brasse  : 
I  have  sent  you  some  of  them  for  an  example. 

"The  men  for  the  most  part  live  idely,  they  do 
nothing  but  hunt  and  fish  :  Their  wives  set  their  corne 
and  doe  all  their  other  worke.  They  have  little  house- 
hold stuffe,  as  a  kettle,  and  some  other  vessels  like 
trayes,  spoones,  dishes,  and  baskets. 

"Their  houses  are  verie  little  and  homely,  being 
made  with  small  poles  pricked  into  the  ground,  and 
so  bended  and  fastned  at  the  tops,  and  on  the  sides 
they  are  matted  with  boughs  and  covered  on  the  roof 
with  sedge  and  old  mats,  and  for  their  beds  that  they 
take  their  rest  on,  they  have  a  mat. 

"They  doe  generally  professe  to  like  well  of  our 
coming  and  planting  here ;  partly  because  there  is 
abundance  of  ground  that  they  cannot  possesse  nor 


106  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

make  use  of,  and  partly  because  our  being  here  will 
bee  a  meanes  both  of  relief  to  them  when  they  want, 
and  also  a  defence  from  their  enemies,  wherewith 
(I  say)  before  this  plantation  began,  they  were  often 
indangered. 

"  For  their  religion  they  do  worship  two  Gods,  a 
good  God  and  an  evil  God :  The  gocfd  God  they  call 
Tantum,  and  their  evil  God  whom  they  fear  will  doe 
them  hurt,  they  call  Squantum. 

"For  their  dealing  with  us,  we  neither  fear  them 
nor  trust  them,  for  fourtie  of  our  musketeeres  will 
drive  five  hundred  of  them  out  of  the  field.  We  use 
them  kindly ;  they  will  come  into  our  houses  some- 
times by  half  a  dozen  or  half  a  score  at  a  time  when 
we  are  at  victuals,  but  will  ask  or  take  nothing  but 
what  we  give  them. 

"  We  purpose  to  learn  their  language  as  soon  as 
we  can,  which  will  be  a  means  to  do  them  good." 

Francis  Higginson  did  not  live  to  carry  out  this 
last  wish,  but  it  was  amply  fulfilled,  some  years  later, 
by  the  Rev.  John  Eliot,  known  as  the  "apostle"  to 
the  Indians,  who  landed  in  Boston  Nov.  3,  1631,  and 
soon  set  about  those  studies  in  the  difficult  Indian 
vernacular  which  culminated  in  the  publication  (1663) 
of  his  complete  revision  of  the  Scriptures.  "  The  His- 
tory of  the  Christian  Church  does  not  contain,"  wrote 
Edward  Everett,  "an  example  of  resolute,  untiring, 
successful  labour  "  superior  to  this.  It  must  always 
be  remembered  that  as  Roger  Clap  says  of  his  com- 


"NEW-ENGLAND'S  PLANTATION."        107 

panions,  "  One  end  of  our  coming  hither  was  to  preach 
the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  the  Indians ;  "  * 
and  it  may  be  forgiven  to  Francis  Higginson  if  he 
did  not  foresee,  on  arrival,  how  difficult  it  would  be 
to  preach  the  gospel  to  these  wild  belligerents,  or 
even  to  learn  their  language.  It  is  something  if  he 
approached  them,  at  least,  in  a  kind  and  humane 
spirit. 

He  then  proceeds  to  report  on  the  actual  condition 
of  the  colony :  — 

Of  the  present  condition  of  the  Plantation,  and 
what  it  is. 

"  When  we  came  first  to  Nehum-kek,  we  found 
about  half  a  score  houses,  and  a  faire  house  newly 
built  for  the  Governor,  we  found  also  aboundance  of 
corne  planted  by  them,  very  good  and  well  liking. 
And  we  brought  with  us  about  two  hundred  passen- 
gers and  planters  more,  which  by  common  consent  of 
the  old  planters  were  all  combined  together  into  one 
body  politicke,  under  the  same  Governour. 

"  There  are  in  all  of  us  both  old  and  new  planters 
about  three  hundred,  whereof  two  hundred  of  them 
are  settled  at  Nehum-kek,  now  called  Salem :  And 
the  rest  have  planted  themselves  at  Masathulets  Bay, 
beginning  to  build  a  towne  there  which  wee  do  call 
Cherton,  or  Charles  Town. 

"  We  that  are  settled  at  Salem  make  what  haste  we 

1  Young's  Chronicles,  p.  364. 


I08  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

can  to  build  houses,  so  that  within  a  short  time  we 
shall  have  a  faire  towne. 

"  We  have  great  ordnance,  wherewith  we  doubt  not 
but  we  shall  fortifie  ourselves  in  a  short  time  to  keepe 
out  a  potent  adversary.  But  that  which  is  our 
greatest  comfort,  and  meanes  of  defence  above  all 
other,  is,  that  we  have  here  the  true  religion  and 
holy  ordinances  of  Almighty  God  taught  amongst  us  : 
Thankes  be  to  God,  wee  have  here  plenty  of  preach- 
ing, and  diligent  catechizing,  with  strict  and  carefull 
exercise,  and  good  and  commendable  orders  to  bring 
our  people  into  a  Christian  conversation  with  whom 
we  have  to  doe  withall.  And  thus  wee  doubt  not  but 
God  will  be  with  us,  and  if  God  be  with  us,  who  can 
be  against  us  ?  " 

\Here  ends  Master  Higgeson's  relation  of  New-England.] 


THE   REVOLT  OF  THE   CONFORMISTS,       109 


X. 

THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  CONFORMISTS. 

"  For,"  said  he,  "there  will  be  no  difference  between  the  conform- 
able ministers  and  you,  when  they  come  to  the  practice  of  the  ordi- 
nances out  of  the  kingdom."  —  John  Robinson  to  Winslow. 

THE  day  of  the  ordination  passed  peacefully  away, 
for  all  its  novel  forms ;  but  trouble  was  impending. 
The  innovations  soon  encountered  the  opposition  of 
two  very  stout  and  unflinching  churchmen  who,  though 
members  of  the  Council  of  the  colony,  had  made 
themselves  previously  the  "objects  of  dislike,  as  not 
having  "adventured  in  the  common  stock"  and  as 
having  shown  in  other  ways  an  antagonistic  spirit.1 
However  this  may  have  been,  we  can  hardly  blame 
them  if  they  thought  —  what  was  simply  the  fact  — 
that  heresy  was  making  a  rapid  though  gentle  progress. 
They  doubtless  felt,  and  with  some  reason,  that  what- 
ever Francis  Higginson  may  have  said  or  thought  on 
the  voyage,  his  "sup  of  New  England  air"  had 
quickly  transformed  him  into  something  not  easily 
to  be  distinguished  from  those  "separatists"  whom 
he  had  once  disowned.  Indeed  they  frankly  declared 

1  Bentley  in  Mass.  Hist  Coll.,  vi.  242. 


HO  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

that  the  newly  ordained  ministers  were  already  sep- 
aratists, and  on  the  way  to  become  Anabaptists,  —  a 
name  then  significant  of  all  terror  to  those  familiar 
with  the  history  of  John  of  Munster  and  his  Leyden 
atrocities.  The  nearest  to  a  contemporary  record 
of  their  action  is  to  be  found,  as  before,  in  the  manu- 
scripts of  Governor  Bradford,  of  Plymouth,  as  em- 
bodied in  Morton's  Memorial,  already  cited.  His 
narration  proceeds  as  follows  :  — 

"  But  some  of  the  passengers  that  came  over  at  the 
same  time,  observing  that  the  ministers  did  not,  at 
all,  use  the  book  of  common  prayer,  and  that  they 
did  administer  baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper  without 
the  ceremonies,  and  that  they  professed  also  to  use 
discipline  in  the  congregation  against  scandalous  per- 
sons, by  a  personal  application  of  the  word  of  God, 
as  the  case  might  require,  and  that  some  that  were 
scandalous  were  denied  admission  into  the  church, 
they  began  to  raise  some  trouble ;  of  these  Mr.  Sam- 
uel Brown  and  his  brother  were  the  chief,  the  one 
being  a  lawyer,  the  other  a  merchant,  both  of  them 
amongst  the  number  of  the  first  patentees,  men  of 
estates,  and  men  of  parts  and  port  in  the  place. 
These  two  brothers  gathered  a  company  together,  in 
a  place,  distinct  from  the  public  assembly,  and  there 
sundry  times,  the  book  of  common  prayer  was  read 
unto  such  as  resorted  thither.  The  governour,  Mr. 
Endicot,  taking  notice  of  the  disturbance  that  began 
to  grow  amongst  the  people  by  this  means,  he  con- 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE   CONFORMISTS.       m 

vented  the  two  brothers  before  him.  They  accused 
the  ministers  as  departing  from  the  orders  of  the 
church  of  England,  that  they  were  separatists,  and 
would  be  anabaptists,  &c.  but  for  themselves,  they 
would  hold  to  the  orders  of  the  church  of  England. 
The  ministers  answered  for  themselves,  they  were 
neither  separatists  nor  anabaptists,  they  did  not  sepa- 
rate from  the  church  of  England,  nor  from  the  ordi- 
nances of  God  there,  but  only  from  the  corruptions 
and  disorders  there ;  and  that  they  came  away  from 
the  common  prayer  and  ceremonies,  and  had  suffered 
much  for  their  non-conformity  in  their  native  land, 
and  therefore  being  in  a  place  where  they  might  have 
their  liberty,  they  neither  could  nor  would  use  them, 
because  they  judged  the  imposition  of  these  things  to 
be  sinful  corruptions  in  the  worship  of  God.  The 
governour  and  council,  and  the  generality  of  the 
people,  did  well  approve  of  the  ministers  answer; 
and  therefore  finding  those  two  brothers  to  be  of  high 
spirits,  and  their  speeches  and  practices  tending  to 
mutiny  and  faction,  the  governour  told  them,  that 
New  England  was  no  place  for  such  as  they;  and 
therefore  he  sent  them  both  back  for  England,  at  the 
return  of  the  ships  the  same  year ;  and  though  they 
breathed  out  threatenings  both  against  the  governour 
and  ministers  there,  yet  the  Lord  so  disposed  of  all, 
that  'there  was  no  further  inconvenience  followed 
upon  it."  a 

1  Morton's  N.  E.  Memorial  (ed.  1826),  pp.  147,  148. 


H2  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON". 

To  see  how  the  Lord  disposed  of  it  we  must  con- 
sider the  important  crisis  of  colonial  affairs  at  which 
this  difference  of  opinion  occurred.  The  General 
Court  which  controlled  the  affairs  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  Colony  had  just  decided  (August  29,  1630),  after 
prolonged  and  careful  debate,  upon  a  measure  which 
has  been  said  to  "  stand  alone  in  the  history  of  Eng- 
lish colonization,"  —  the  bodily  transfer  to  New  Eng- 
land of  "  the  whole  patent  and  government  of  the 
plantation."  Whatever  may  have  been  the  legality  or 
illegality  of  this  much  discussed  measure,  it  is  plain 
that  the  fate  of  the  New  World  turned  upon  it,  and 
it  is  possible  that  without  the  powerful  weight 
thus  thrown  into  the  scale,  the  three  struggling  settle- 
ments at  Jamestown,  Plymouth,  and  Salem  might  all 
have  given  up  the  ghost,  as  the  Popham  Colony  and 
various  smaller  enterprises  had  already  done.  This  is 
not  the  place  to  go  into  an  extended  discussion  of  that 
measure,  vital  as  were  its  results  to  Francis  Higginson 
and  his  posterity.  Few  measures  have  been  more 
discussed,  or  with  a  greater  variety  of  epithets. 

Brooks  Adams 1  calls  it  a  "  singularly  bold  and  law- 
less proceeding;  "  and  R.  C.  Winthrop2  calls  it  "a 
radical  and  almost  revolutionary  change."  But  it 
must  be  noted  that  the  very  agreement  which  ef- 
fected the  change  provided  that  the  government  and 
patent  should  first  be  "  legally  transferred ;  "  and 
Palfrey 8  expressly  says  :  "  Legal  advice  was  obtained 

1  The  Emancipation  of  Massachusetts,  p.  22. 

2  Life  of  John  Winthrop,  i.  342. 

8  History  of  New  England,  i.  302. 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE   CONFORMISTS.    113 

as  to  the  authority  to  make  the  transfer."  The  whole 
question  of  legality  has  always  been  regarded  as  very 
important,  inasmuch  as  the  whole  matter  of  the  right 
of  Quakers  and  other  dissentients  to  enter  the  colony 
hinged  largely  on  this  point. 

That  this  importance  of  the  legal  aspect  was  fully 
recognized  at  the  time,  is  signally  shown  in  the  fact 
that  when,  after  long  discussion,  the  vote  was  finally 
put  to  the  "  General  Court "  of  the  Company,  it  was 
put  in  this  form  (the  italics  being  my  own)  :  "  As 
many  of  you  as  desire  to  have  the  patent  and  the 
government  of  the  Plantation  to  be  transferred  to  New 
England,  so  as  it  may  be  done  legally,  hold  up  your 
hands ;  so  many  as  will  not,  hold  up  your  hands ." 

The  following  is  the  text  of  the  momentous  "  Agree- 
ment at  Cambridge  "  :  — 

"  The  true  coppie  of  the  agreement  at  Cambridge, 
August  26,  1629. 

"  Upon  due  consideration  of  the  state  of  the  planta- 
tion now  in  hand  for  New  England,  wherein  wee 
(whose  names  are  hereunto  subscribed)  have  engaged 
ourselves :  and  having  weighed  the  greatnes  of  the 
worke  in  regard  of  the  consequence,  God's  glory  and 
the  churches  good  :  As  also  in  regard  of  the  difrl- 
cultyes  and  discouragements  which  in  all  probabilityes 
must -be  forecast  upon  the  execution  of  this  business  : 
Considering  withall  that  this  whole  adventure  growes 
upon  the  joynt  confidence  we  have  in  each  others 
fidelity  and  resolution  herein,  so  as  no  man  of  us 

8 


1 14  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

would  have  adventured  it  without  assurance  of  the 
rest.  Now  for  the  better  encouragement  of  ourselves 
and  others  that  shall  joyne  with  us  in  this  action,  and 
to  the  end  that  every  man  may  without  scruple  dis- 
pose of  his  estate  and  afayres  as  may  best  fitt  his 
preparation  for  this  voyage,  it  is  fully  and  faithfully 
agreed  amongst  us,  and  every  of  us  doth  hereby 
freely  and  sincerely  promise  and  bind  himself  in  the 
word  of  a  Christian  and  in  the  presence  of  God  who  is 
the  searcher  of  all  hearts,  that  we  will  really  so  endeav- 
our the  execution  of  this  worke,  as  by  Gods  assistance 
we  will  be  ready  in  our  persons,  and  with  such  of  our 
severall  familyes  as  are  to  go  with  us,  and  such  pro- 
vision as  we  are  able  conveniently  to  furnish  ourselves 
withall,  to  embarke  for  the  said  plantation  by  the  first 
of  March  next,  at  such  port  or  ports  of  this  land  as 
shall  be  agreed  upon  by  the  Companie,  to  the  end  to 
passe  the  seas  (under  God's  protection)  to  inhabite 
and  continue  in  New  England.  Provided  always,  that 
before  the  last  of  September  next  the  whole  govern- 
ment together  with  the  patent  for  the  said  plantation 
be  first  by  an  order  of  court  legally  transferred  and 
established  to  remain  with  us  and  others  which  shall 
inhabite  upon  the  said  plantation.  And  provided  also 
that  if  any  shall  be  hindered  by  such  just  and  inevi- 
table lett  or  other  cause  to  be  allowed  by  3  parts  of 
foure  of  these  whole  names  are  hereunto  subscribed, 
then  such  persons  for  such  tymes  and  during  such 
letts  to  be  discharged  of  this  bond.  And  we  do 
further  promise  every  one  for  himselfe,  that  shall  fayle 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE   CONFORMISTS.       115 

to  be  ready  through  his  own  default  by  the  day 
appointed,  to  pay  for  every  day's  default  the  sum  of 
3/.  to  the  use  of  the  rest  of  the  Companie  who  shall 
be  ready  by  the  same  day  and  time. 

"This  was  done  by  order  of  court  the  29th  of  Au- 
gust, 1629. 

RICHARD  SALTONSTALL        ISAAC  JOHNSON 
THO:  DUDLEY  JOHN  HUMFREY 

WILLIAM  VASSALL  THO  :  SHARP 

NIKO  :  WEST  INCREASE  NOWELL 

JOHN  WENTHROP 
WILL  PINCHON 
KELLAM  BROWNE 
WILLIAM  COLBRON." 

After  a  step  so  daring,  it  is  not  strange  if  a  little 
reaction  set  in,  and  if  the  protests  of  "  the  Brownes  " 
attracted  more  attention  than  would  at  another  time 
have  happened.  The  record  of  a  meeting  of  the 
Court  of  Assistants  in  London,  held  Sept.  19,  1629, 
is  as  follows  :  — 

"  At  this  Court  tres  [letters]  were  read  from  Capt. 
Endicott  and  others  from  New  E;1  and  wheras  a 
difference  hath  falne  out  betwixt  the  Goun4  there  & 
Mr.  John  &  Samuell  Browne,  it  was  agreed  by  the 
Court  that,  for  the  determination  of  those  differences, 
Mr.  John  &  Samuell  Browne  might  choose  any  3  or  4 
of  the  Company  on  their  behalfe,  to  heare  the  said 

1  These  letters  are  lost. 


Il6  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

differences,  the  Company  choosing  as  many :  Wher- 
upon  the  said  Mr.  John  and  Samuell  Browne  made 
choice  of  Mr  Sam :  Vassell  and  Mr  Wm  Vassell,  Mr 
Symon  Whetcombe,  &  Mr  Will™  Pinchion;  and  for 
the  Companie  there  were  chosen  Mr  John  Whyte, 
Mr  John  Davenport,  Mr  Isaac  Johnson  &  Mr  John 
Wynthropp ;  who,  wth  the  Gournor  or  Deputie,  are  to 
determine  and  end  the  business  the  first  Tewsday  in 
the  next  tearme  ;  and  if  any  of  the  aforenamed  ptyes 
[parties]  bee  absent,  others  to  bee  chosen  by  ether 
ptyes  in  their  steade."  1 

So  the  matter  was  referred  and  postponed,  and  the 
next  paragraph  proceeds  to  the  matter  of  unlading 
the  "Lyon's  Whelpe "  and  the  "Talbott,"  the  re- 
turned ships  of  Francis  Higginson's  expedition. 

At  the  next  meeting  of  the  General  Court  (Sept. 
29,  1629),  this  further  action  was  taken:  — 

"  The  next  thinge  taken  into  consideration  was  the 
tres  [letters]  from  Mr  Jo  :  &  Samuell  Browne  to  divers 
of  their  private  freinds  heere  in  England,  whether  the 
same  should  bee  deliuered  or  detained,  &  whether 
they  should  bee  opened  &  read,  or  not ;  and  for  that 
it  was  to  bee  doubted  by  pbable  [probable]  circum- 
stances, that  they  had  defamed  the  country  of  New 
England  &  the  Goufmor  &  gounm*  there,  it  was 
thought  fitt  that  some  of  the  said  tres  [letters]  should 
bee  opened  &  publiquely  read,  w°h  was  done  accord- 

1  Massachusetts  Records,  i.  51. 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE   CONFORMISTS.       117 

ingly ;  and  the  rest  to  remaine  at  Mr  Deputyes  house, 
&  the  ptyes  [parties]  to  whom  they  are  directed  to 
haue  notice,  and  Mr  Gounor,  Mr  Deputie,  Mr  Trer  & 
Mr  Wright,  or  any  two  of  them,  are  intreated  to  bee 
at  the  opning  &  reading  thereof,  to  the  end  the 
Company  may  haue  notice,  if  ought  bee  incerted 
therein  wch  may  bee  piudiciall  [prejudicial]  to  their 
gounm*,  or  plantacon  in  New  England. 

"  And  it  is  also  thought  fitt  that  none  of  the  tres 
[letters]  from  Mr.  Sam :  Browne  shalbe  deliured,  but 
kept  to  bee  made  vse  of  against  him  as  occasion  shalbe 
offred."  1 

At  the  close  of  the  same  meeting  it  is  recorded  :  — 

"  Upon  the  desire  of  Mr  John  &  Samuell  Browne, 
it  is  thought  fitt  &  ordered  that  they  should  haue  a 
coppy  of  the  accusacon  sent  from  New  England 
ag*  them,  to  the  end  that  they  may  bee  the  better 
ppared  [prepared]  to  make  answer  thervnto."  2 

At  a  meeting  held  Oct.  16,  1629,  it  is  recorded :  — 

"  Lastly,  tres  [letters]  were  read  and  signed  to 
Mr  Endecott,  Mr  Skelton  &  Mr  Higgison,  as  appears 
by  the  entryes  of  them  in  the  book  of  coppyes  of  tres 
[letters]."8 

There  is  no  further  reference  to  the  subject  in  the 
records  of  the  Company,  although  there  are  one  or 
two  references  to  an  alleged  undervaluation  of  goods 
—  material,  not  spiritual  goods  —  belonging  to  the 

1  Records  of  Massachusetts,  i.  52,  53. 

2  Ibid.,  54.  8  Ibid.,  57. 


Il8  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

Messrs.  Browne,  and  brought  by  them  from  New 
England  to  England.  The  London  records  close 
March  29,  on  the  transfer  of  the  government  to  the 
colony,  and  the  complainants  thenceforth  disappear 
from  the  scene.  But  the  subsequent  seizure  and 
transfer  to  England  of  a  more  conspicuous  personage, 
Thomas  Morton  of  Merry  Mount,  necessarily  revived 
the  same  question  of  colonial  authority,  and  all  the 
later  proceedings  against  Quakers  and  Baptists  in- 
volved much  the  same  point ;  namely,  how  far  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  was  now  in  the  position  of 
a  self-governing  body,  with  the  right  to  select  its  own 
members,  and  how  far  it  was  limited  by  English  law. 
It  is  a  subject  on  which  volumes  have  been  written, 
and  which  is  aside  from  the  subject  of  the  present 
work.  All  that  is  here  necessary  is  to  give  the  letters 
sent  by  the  Company  to  "the  ministers,"  adding  also 
that  to  Governor  Endicott,  as  explanatory  of  the  first. 

"  Reverend  freinds. 

"  There  are  lately  arrived  heere  (being  sent  from  the 
Gounor  Mr  Endecott,  as  Men  ffactious  and  (evill) 
conditioned)  John  and  Samuell  Browne  being  breth- 
re(n,)  who  since  their  arrivall  haue  raised  rumors  (as 
we  hear)  of  divers  scandalous  &  intempate  speeches 
passed  from  one  or  both  of  you  in  yor  publique  Ser- 
mons or  prayer  (s)  in  N  :  England,  as  also  of  some 
inovacons  attempted  by  you,  wee  haue  reason  to  hope 
that  their  reports  are  but  slanders  pty  for  that  yor 
Godly  and  quiett  conditions  are  well  knowne  to  some 
of  vs,  as  also  for  that  these  Men  yor  accusers  seeme 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  CONFORMISTS.       119 

to  bee  imbittered  against  you  &  Capt  Endecott  for 
iniuryes  wch  they  conceive  they  haue  received  from 
some  of  you  there,  yett  for  that  wee  all  knowe  that 
the  best  advysed  may  overshoote  themselues  wee  haue 
thought  good  to  informe  you  of  what  wee  heare  that 
if  you  bee  inocent  you  may  cleere  yorselues,  or  if  other- 
wise you  may  heereby  bee  intreated  to  looke  back 
vpon  yor  miscarriage  wth  repentance,  or  at  least  to  take 
notice  that  wee  vtterly  disallowe  any  such  passages, 
and  must  and  will  take  Order  for  the  redress  thereof 
as  shall  become  vs,  but  hoping  as  we  said,  of  yor  vn- 
blamableness  herein  wee  desire  only  that  this  may 
testyfie  to  you  &  others  that  wee  are  tender  of  the 
least  aspsion  wch  ether  directly  or  obliquely  may  bee 
cast  vpon  the  State  heere  to  whom  wee  owe  soe  much 
duty  and  from  whom  wee  haue  received  soe  much 
fauor  in  this  plantacon  where  you  now  resyde,  soe  wth 
or  loue  &  due  respect  to  yor  Callings  wee  rest 

yor  loving  freinds 

MATT  :  CRADOCK  Gor 
LONDON  16  Octo  :  1629.  THO  :  GOFF  dep 

R:  SALTONSTALL  GEO  :  HARWOOD  Trcr. 

ISA  :  JOHNSON.  JOHN  WINTHROP 

THO  :  ADAMS 
SYM  :  WHETCOMBE 
WILLM  VASSALL 

WM  PlNCHION 

JOHN  REVELL 
FRANCIS  WEBB. 
MR  SKELTON  &  MR  HIGGISON." 


120  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

«Sr 

"  As  wee  haue  written  at  this  tyme  to  Mr  Skelton  & 
Mr  Higgison  touching  the  rumors  of  Jo :  &  Sam : 
Browne  spread  by  them  vpon  their  arrivall  heere, 
concerning  some  vnadvysed  and  scandalous  speeches 
vttered  by  them  in  their  publique  sermons  or  prayers, 
Soe  haue  wee  thought  meete  to  advertise  you  of  what 
they  haue  reported  against  you  and  them,  concerninge 
some  rash  inovacons  begun  and  practized  in  the 
Civill  &  ecclesiasticall  Goulnm1 :  Wee  doe  well  con- 
sider that  the  Browne s  are  likely  to  make  the  worst  of 
any  thing  they  haue  observed  in  N  :  England  by  rea- 
son of  you  sending  them  back  against  their  wills  for 
their  offencive  behauior  expressed  in  a  genlall  -ire 
from  the  Company  there,  yett  for  that  wee  likewise 
doe  consider,  that  you  are  in  a  Goulnm* :  newly 
founded  &  want  that  assistance  w*h  the  waight  of  such 
a  business  doth  require,  wee  may  haue  leave  to  thinke 
that  it  is  possible  some  vndigested  Councells  haue  too 
sodainely  bin  put  in  execucon  wch  may  haue  ill  con- 
struccon  wth  the  State  heere,  and  make  vs  obnoxious 
to  any  adversary,  Lett  it  therfore  seeme  good  vnto 
you  to  bee  very  sparing  in  introduceing  any  lawes  or 
Comands,  wch  may  render  yorselfe  or  vs  distastfull  to 
the  State  heere  to  wch  (as  wee  ought)  wee  must  & 
will  haue  an  obsequious  eye ;  and  as  wee  make  it  or 
mayne  care  to  haue  the  Plantacon  so  Ordered  as 
may  be  most  for  the  honor  of  God,  and  or  gratious 
Soffiaigne  who  hath  bestowed  many  large  priuledges 
and  Royall  fauors  vpon  this  Companie,  soe  we  desire 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  CONFORMISTS.       121 

that  all  such  as  shall  by  word  or  deede  do  anythinge 
to  detract  from  Gods  Glory  or  his  Mats :  honor  may 
bee  duly  Corrected  for  their  amendm' :  &  the  terror 
of  others,  and  to  that  end  if  you  knowe  anythinge 
wch  hath  bin  spoken  or  done,  ether  by  the  Ministers 
(whom  the  Brownes  doe  seeme  tacetly  to  blame  for 
some  things  vttered  in  their  Sermons  or  prayers)  or 
any  others,  wee  require  you  if  any  such  thinge  bee, 
that  you  forme  due  pees  against  the  offendors  and  send 
it  to  vs  by  the  first  that  wee  may  as  or  duty  bindes  vs, 
vse  meanes  to  haue  them  duly  punished ;  Soe  not 
doubting  but  wee  haue  said  enough  wee  shall  repose 
orselues  vpon  yo  Wisdome  ;  And  doe  rest 

yo  loving  freinds 

dated  and  signed  as  the 
form  ire  to  Mr  Skelton 
&  Mr  Higgison. 

To  the  Gou!nor  Cap1 : 

ENDECOTT.1  " 

It  is  well  said  by  Mr.  Justice  Endicott  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Supreme  Court  that  these  letters  are  "  cau- 
tious and  politic,"  and  that  the  art  of  his  distinguished 
ancestor  was  never  formally  disapproved.  He  adds  : 
"  The  Colony  was  like  a  ship  at  sea  or  an  army  on 
the  march,  and  disaffection  and  mutiny  in  the  crew 

1  Both  these  letters  have  been  reprinted  in  the  First  Book 
of  Suffolk  Deeds  (Boston),  pp.  xxii,  xxiii.  They  are  also  re- 
printed by  Rev.  Alexander  Young  in  his  "  Chronicles  of  Mas- 
sachusetts," p.  15,  but  with  the  spelling  modernized. 


122  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

or  in  the  ranks  must  be  summarily  dealt  with.  The 
wide  continent  was  open  to  colonization,  but  the 
narrow  strip  of  land  called  Massachusetts  had  been 
given  to  this  people  as  their  own,  with  power  to  de- 
termine who  should  enjoy  and  be  admitted  to  its 
privileges,  and  upon  what  terms  and  conditions." 

"  Nevertheless,  wee  desire  (if  it  may  bee)  that  er- 
rors may  be  reformed  wth  lenitie  or  mylde  correccon ; 
and  if  any  pve  [prove]  incorrigable  &  will  not  bee  re- 
claimed by  gentle  correccon,  ship  such  psons  home 
by  the  Lyons  Whelpe,  rather  then  keepe  them  there 
to  infect  or  to  be  an  occasion  of  scandall  vnto  others ; 
wee  being  fully  pswaded  that  if  one  or  two  bee  soe  re- 
shipped  back  and  certificate  sent  home  of  their  mis- 
demeanor,  it  wilbe  a  terror  to  the  rest  and  a  meanes 
to  reduce  them  to  good  conformitie."  l 

Here  the  matter  seems  to  have  remained  for  the 
present;  but  four  years  later  the  recusants  returned 
from  England,  and  seem  to  have  dwelt  in  peace 
thereafter  with  the  established  powers.  Their  pre- 
diction was  not  fulfilled.  The  ministers  became  separa- 
tists, but  did  not  become  anabaptists ;  and  the  growth 
and  increasing  power  of  the  colony  made  the  friction 
of  opposing  opinions  in  some  respects  less  intense, 
while  at  other  points  it  went  on  increasing.  Review- 
ing the  whole  controversy,  it  is  impossible  not  to  feel 
that  it  had  an  historic  importance  as  the  first  of  a 

1  Records  of  Massachusetts,  i.  393  (April  17,  1629). 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE   CONFORMISTS.       123 

long  series  of  rather  aggressive  self-assertions  on  the 
part  of  the  Puritan  colony.  "The  policy  they  pur- 
sued," says  Felt,  "  in  reference  to  civil  and  ecclesias- 
tical affairs  was  not  peculiar  to  them.  It  was  com- 
mon to  their  successors  in  the  colonial  administration, 
was  frequently  complained  of  by  the  sovereigns  of 
England,  and  ultimately  became  the  cause  of  our 
independence." l 

1  Felt's  Annals  of  Salem  (ist  ed.),  p.  39.  For  the  contro- 
versy between  Governor  Endicott  and  the  two  Brownes,  a  con- 
troversy in  which  Francis  Higginson  and  his  colleague  seem 
to  have  furnished  rather  the  occasion  than  the  participants,  see 
Morton's  Memorial,  p.  147  ;  Chalmers'  Political  Annals,  p.  146 ; 
Grahame's  History  of  the  United  States,  i.  218;  Bancroft 
(ed.  1876),  i.  272;  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts, 
pp.  89,91,  94,  123,  168,  287;  Palfrey's  New  England,  i.  298; 
Adams's  Emancipation  of  Massachusetts,  p.  87  ;  Felt's  Annals 
of  Salem  (2d  ed.),  i.  130. 


124  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 


XL 

A   SALEM    PARSONAGE. 
A  work  of  church  reformation  in  America.  —  MATHER  :  Magnalia. 

THE  further  history  of  Francis  Higginson  is  identi- 
fied with  that  of  the  little  colony  itself.  He  seems  to 
have  been  the  leader  in  regard  to  the  change  of  name 
by  which  Naumkeag,  or  Nahum-kek,  became  Salem,  as 
being  the  home  of  peace.1  "  In  obedience  to  orders 
from  the  Company  in  London,  a  house  was  built 
for  Francis  Higginson,  in  which  he  resided,  and  after 
him,  Roger  Williams,  directly  south  of  and  about  fifty 
feet  distant  from  the  eastern  part  of  the  site  of  our 
present  meeting-house  [/.  e.  that  of  the  First  Church 
in  Salem]  ;  its  front  was  towards  the  South  River.  It 
stood  on  ground  covered  by  the  southeastern  corner  of 
the  Asiatic  Block,  precisely  where  the  Merchants' Read- 
ing Room  now  is.  Nearer  to  the  river,  and  more  to- 
wards the  east,  a  house  was  provided  for  Mr.  Skelton. 
Both  the  ministers  resided  very  near  to  this  spot,  and 
their  convenience,  we  may  presume,  was  consulted  in 
the  arrangements  made  for  the  exercise  of  their  pub- 
lic functions.  An  unfinished  building  of  one  story 

1  Felt's  Salem  (ist  ed.),  p.  27. 


A   SALEM  PARSONAGE.  125 

was  temporarily  used  at  the  beginning,  for  the  pur- 
poses of  the  congregation."  l  This  must  not  be  con- 
founded with  the  small  building  still  preserved  in 
Salem,  in  the  rear  of  Plummer  Hall,  for  this  was  not 
built  until  1634,  after  Francis  Higginson's  work  was 
ended. 

Of  that  work,  we  must  remember,  the  pulpit  duty 
was  but  a  small  part.  The  Puritan  clergy  of  the 
colony  were  not  merely  "  pastors "  or  "  teachers," 
but  they  were  also  the  magistrates  of  the  colony,  and 
members  of  its  civil  government.  Francis  Higginson's 
own  writings  show  how  familiar  he  was  with  all  aspects 
of  the  colonial  life ;  and  he  had  to  be  the  actual  guide 
of  his  people,  as  well  as  their  spiritual  adviser,  during 
that  terrible  ordeal  of  privation  which  went  on,  even 
after  the  arrival  of  Winthrop,  June,  1630,  during  a 
time  when,  in  the  words  of  Captain  Roger  Clap, 
"frost-fish,  muscles  and  clams,  were  a  relief  unto 
many."  2 

It  is  the  Salem  tradition,  as  expressed  by  Felt,  that 
Francis  Higginson  "  in  his  person  was  slender  and 
erect,  but  not  tall.  In  his  manners  he  was  courteous 
and  obliging.  His  talents  were  of  a  high  order.  He 
well  cultivated  them  in  the  fields  of  literature  and 
divinity.  A  primitive  writer  on  New  England8  says 
of.  him,  'A  man  endued  with  grace,  apt  to  teach, 

1  Upham's    Address    at    the    Re-dedication  of  the   First 
Church,  p.  38. 

2  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts,  p.  353. 
8  Edward  Johnson. 


I26  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

mighty  in  the  Scriptures,  learned  in  the  Tongues,  able 
to  convince  gainsay ers.'  As  a  preacher,  Mr.  Higgin- 
son  was  uncommonly  popular." 1  In  England  he  had, 
according  to  his  son  John,  addressed  "  thousands ;  " 
but  of  his  pulpit  services  in  America,  there  remains 
no  record,  except  that  his  last  sermon,  delivered  but 
a  few  weeks  before  his  death,  was  from  Matt.  xi.  7  : 
"  What  went  ye  out  into  the  wilderness  to  see  ?  "  2  This 
sermon  was  preached  before  Governor  Winthrop,  and 
the  large  body  of  settlers  who  came  with  him ;  and 
it  may  be  that  advancing  illness  had  impaired  that 
"  charming  voice  "  which  is  said  by  Neal,  the  histo- 
rian of  the  Puritans,  to  have  made  Francis  Higginson 
"  one  of  the  most  acceptable  and  popular  preachers  in 
the  country,"  8  —  and  this  while  yet  in  England.  We 
know  that,  out  of  the  pulpit,  he  showed  the  same  lib- 
eral tendency  which  marked  the  covenant  he  framed, 
and  that  he  was  "  seriously  studious  of  reformation." 
This  is  shown  in  the  following  statement  from  "  New 
England's  Memorial,"  by  Morton,  which  had  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  Rev.  John  Higginson  by  a  preface,  and 
may  therefore  be  relied  upon  for  all  that  relates  to  his 
father  and  predecessor  in  the  Salem  Church  :  — 

"  The  two  ministers  there  being  seriously  studious 
of  reformation,  they  considered  of  the  state  of  their 
children,  together  with  their  parents ;  concerning 
which,  letters  did  pass  between  Mr.  Higginson,  and 

1  Felt's  Annals  of  Salem  (ist  ed.),  p.  45. 

2  Morton's  Memorial  (ed.  1826),  p.  150,  note. 
•  Ibid. 


A  SALEM  PARSONAGE. 


127 


Mr.  Brewster,  the  reverend  elder  of  the  church  of  Pli- 
mouth,  and  they  did  agree  in  their  judgments,  viz. 
concerning  the  church-membership  of  the  children 
with  their  parents,  and  that  baptism  was  a  seal  of 
their  membership ;  only  when  they  were  adult,  they 
being  not  scandalous,  they  were  to  be  examined  by 
the  church  officers,  and  upon  their  approbation  of  their 
fitness,  and  upon  the  children's  public  and  personally 
owning  of  the  covenant,  they  were  to  be  received  unto 
the  Lord's  supper.  Accordingly,  Mr.  Higginson's 
eldest  son,  being  about  fifteen1  years  of  age,  was 
owned  to  have  been  received  a  member,  together 
with  his  parents,  and  being  privately  examined  by 
the  pastor,  Mr.  Skelton,  about  his  knowledge  in  the 
principles  of  religion,  he  did  present  him  before  the 
church  when  the  Lord's  supper  was  to  be  adminis- 
tered, and  the  child,  then  publicly  and  personally 
owning  the  covenant  of  the  God  of  his  father,  he  was 
admitted  unto  the  Lord's  supper ;  it  being  then  pro- 
fessedly owned,  according  to  i  Cor.  vii.  14,  that  the 
children  of  the  church  are  holy  unto  the  Lord  as  well 
as  their  parents,  accordingly  the  parents  owning  and 
retaining  the  baptism,  which  they  themselves  received 
in  their  infancy,  in  their  native  land,  as  they  had  any 
children  born,  baptism  was  administered  unto  them, 
viz.  to  the  children  of  such  as  were  members  of  that 
particular  church."  2 

1  Thirteen ;  he  being  just  fourteen  when  his  father  died. 

2  Morton's  New  England's  Memorial  (ed.  1826),  pp.   148, 
149. 


128  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

That  access  of  health  for  which  Francis  Higginson 
had  expressed  such  gratitude  in  his  journal  had  proved 
very  deceptive  ;  and  a  man  of  consumptive  habit,  like 
him,  was  ill-fitted  to  endure  the  periods  of  terrible 
privation  which  weakened  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
Colony.  Many  suffered  from  scurvy,  the  natural  re- 
sult of  six  weeks'  voyages,  followed  by  privation  on 
shore  ;  but  the  death  of  Francis  Higginson  (August  6, 
1 630)  was  from  a  hectic  fever,  according  to  Mather,  and 
from  consumption,  according  to  a  letter  from  Deputy- 
Governor  Dudley.  Governor  Winthrop  wrote  to  his 
wife,  Sept.  9,  1630  :  "The  lady  Arbella  is  dead,  and 
good  Mr.  Higginson ;  my  servant,  old  Waters  of 
Neyland,  and  many  others."  *  In  this  letter  he  re- 
joices that  most  of  his  own  family  are  living,  but  writes 
again  two  months  later :  "  Twelve  of  my  own  family  "  2 
are  dead,  this  including  servants.  It  was  a  sad  and 
sorrowing  period,  but  for  no  one  more  truly  so,  per- 
haps, than  foi  the  widow  of  Francis  Higginson,  left 
with  eight  children  to  be  brought  up  on  a  soil  and 
under  conditions  which  had  been  fatal  to  her  husband. 

Cotton  Mather  thus  draws  the  final  picture  :  — 

"  The  church  of  Salem  now  being  settled,  they  en- 
joyed many  smiles  of  Heaven  upon  them ;  and  yet 

1  Life  and   Letters,   ii.   48.      This   was    Lady  Arbella  or 
Arabella  Johnson,  who  was  a  daughter  of  Thomas,  3d  Earl  of 
Lincoln,  and  who,  as  Cotton  Mather  wrote,  "  took  New  Eng- 
land in  her  way  to  heaven."    The  Johnson  Grammar    School 
for  girls  in  Boston  is  named  for  her. 

2  Life  and  Letters,  ii.  54. 


A   SALEM  PARSONAGE.  129 

there  were  many  things,  that  lookt  like  frowns :  for, 
they  were  exercised  with  many  difficulties,  and  almost 
an  hundred  of  good  people  died  the  first  winter  of  their 
being  here  ;  among  whom  was  Mr.  Houghton,  an  elder 
of  the  church.  Mr.  Higginson  also  fell  into  an  hectic- 
fever,1  which  much  disabled  him  for  the  work  of  his  min- 
istry ;  and  the  last  sermon  under  the  incurable  growth 
of  this  malady  upon  him,  was  upon  the  arrival  of 
many  gentlemen,  and  some  hundreds  of  passengers  to 
New  England,  in  the  beginning  of  the  ensuing  sum- 
mer. He  then  preached  on  those  words  of  our  Saviour, 
Matth.  xi.  7,  What  went  you  out  into  the  wilderness 
to  see  ?  From  whence,  he  minded  the  people  of  the 
design,  whereupon  this  plantation  was  erected,  namely 
religion  :  and  of  the  streights,  wants,  and  various  trials, 
which  in  a  wilderness  they  must  look  to  meet  withal ; 
and  of  the  need  which  there  was  for  them  to  evidence 
the  uprightness  of  their  hearts,  in  the  end  of  their 
coming  hither.  After  this,  he  was  confined  unto  his 
bed,  and  visited  by  the  chief  persons  of  the  new-col- 
ony, who  much  bemoaned  their  loss  of  so  useful  a 
person,  but  comforted  him  with  the  consideration  of 
his  faithfulness  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  in  his  former  suffer- 
ings and  services,  and  the  honour  which  the  Lord  had 
granted  him,  to  begin  a  work  of  church  reformation 
in  America,  He  replied,  /  have  been  but  an  un- 
profitable servant;  and  all  my  own  doings  I  count 
but  loss  and  dung :  all  my  desire  is  to  win  Christ,  and 

1  Deputy-Governor  Dudley  says  "  consumption."     Young's 
Chronicles  of  Massachusetts,  p.  317. 

9 


!30  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

be  found  in  him,  not  having  my  own  righteousness  ! 
And  he  several  times  declared,  That  though  the  Lord 
called  him  away,  he  was  perswaded  God  would  raise 
up  others,  to  carry  on  the  work  that  was  begun,  and 
that  there  would  yet  be  many  churches  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  in  this  wilderness.  He  likewise  added, 
that  though  he  should  leave  his  desolate  wife  and  eight 
children,  whereof  the  eldest  but  about  fourteen  years 
old,  in  a  low  condition,  yet  he  left  them  with  his  God, 
and  he  doubted  not  but  the  faithful  God  would  gra- 
ciously provide  for  them.  So,  in  the  midst  of  many 
prayers,  he  fell  asleep ;  as  in  the  month  of  August, 
1630,  and  in  the  forty-third  year  of  his  age,  and  his 
funeral  was  attended  with  all  possible  solemnity. 

"Reader,  prepare  to  behold  and  admire  and 
adore  the  faithfulness  of  our  God,  in  providing  for 
the  children  of  them,  that  faithfully  have  served 
him.  He  moved  the  hearts  of  many  charitable  chris- 
tians,  who  yet  were  spending  on  the  stocks,  which 
they  brought  out  of  England  with  them,  to  provide 
as  comfortably  for  the  widow  and  off- spring  of  this  de- 
ceased minister,  as  if  he  had  left  them  some  thousands 
of  pounds.  And  his  two  sons,  who  had  been  brought 
up  at  the  grammar-school  in  Leicester,  had  a  particular 
tast  of  this  liberality,  in  the  provision  which  was  thus 
made  for  their  having  such  a  learned  education,  as 
might  fit  them  for  the  service  of  the  church  in  the 
ministry  of  the  gospel."  1 

1  Magnalia  (ed.  1820),  i.  329,  330. 


A   SALEM  PARSONAGE.  131 

Moses  Coit  Tyler  truly  says  of  him  that  he  "  died 
in  the  prime  of  his  life  and  on  the  threshold  of  a  great 
career."  l  Had  he  lived,  like  his  son  and  successor, 
to  be  ninety-two  instead  of  forty-three,  it  is  difficult  to 
measure  the  influence  he  might  have  exerted  on  the 
fortunes  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony.  Even  as  it 
was,  his  benign  influence  helped  to  mould  its  begin- 
ning ;  and  we  may  dismiss  him  with  Cotton-  Mather's 
quaint  epitaph : 

"  EPITAPHIUM 
Jacet  sub  hoc  Tumulo,  Mortuus 

FRANCISCUS  HIGGINSONUS  : 
Jaceret  et  ipsa  Virtus,  si  mori  posset, 

Abi  Viator 
Et  sis  hujus  Ordinis  Franciscanus." 

The  evidence  in  regard  to  the  portraits  of  Francis 
Higginson  is  somewhat  contradictory,  and  the  doubts 
may  perhaps  never  be  wholly  solved.  The  Rev.  Dr. 
Bentley,  the  first  historian  of  Salem,  writing  about  1 800, 
says  explicitly :  "  There  is  a  half-length  painting  of 
Francis  Higginson  in  the  Council  Chamber  at  Boston, 
in  the  old  State  House."2  This  gave  unquestionably 
the  unbroken  Salem  tradition  on  that  point,  the  de- 
scendants of  Francis  Higginson  being  then  numerous 
and  prominent  there  ;  and  the  fact  that  a  copy  of  this 
picture  was  made  for  the  Salem  Athenaeum,  and  that 
another  belonged  to  Dr.  Bentley  himself,  and  was 

1  Tyler's  History  of  American  Literature,  ii.  167. 

2  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  vi.  p.  275. 


I32 


LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 


bequeathed  by  him  to  the  Antiquarian  Society  at 
Worcester,  may  be  regarded  as  making  the  traditional 
evidence  very  strong.  All  three  of  the  pictures  for- 
merly bore  the  name  of  Francis  Higginson  on  labels. 
The  Boston  picture  was  removed  from  the  old  State 
House  to  the  new,  where  it  hung  at  first  in  the  Coun- 
cil Chamber;  then  Gov.  J.  A.  Andrew,  who  was 
himself  a  descendant  of  Francis  Higginson,  had  it 
removed  to  his  private  office,  whence  it  was  removed 
to  the  Secretary  of  State's  office,  where  it  still  hangs. 
It  was  carefully  compared  with  the  Worcester  picture, 
which  was  brought  to  Boston  for  that  purpose,  some 
years  since ;  the  examination  being  made  by  Mr. 
George  Fuller,  the  celebrated  artist,  and  Mr.  J.  East- 
man Chase,  as  experts,  in  presence  of  Col.  Henry  Lee, 
Mr.  Waldo  Higginson  (my  brother),  and  myself,  all 
three  being  descendants  of  Francis  Higginson.  All 
agreed  that  the  Boston  picture  was  the  original,  and 
all  were  perplexed  by  the  existence  of  a  date  painted 
on  the  side  of  the  picture,  and  later  than  the  death  of 
its  supposed  subject. 

Doubts  had  been  long  since  expressed  as  to  which 
of  the  Higginson  clergymen  the  picture  represented ; 
and  Dr.  Alexander  Young  had  positively  announced 
in  1846,  after  giving  a  sketch  of  Francis  Higginson's 
life,  "The  portrait  at  the  State  House  in  Boston  is 
not  his,  but  his  son  John's."  *  This  doubt  was  caused 
by  the  apparent  age  of  the  face  represented,  which 
certainly  looks  old  for  a  man  who  died  at  forty- three. 

1  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts,  p.  317,  note. 


A   SALEM  PARSONAGE. 


133 


Yet  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  Francis  Higginson  had 
long  been  an  invalid,  that  many  men  are  more  or  less 
gray  at  forty- three,  and  that  the  effect  of  the  Puritan 
dress  is  to  increase  the  effect  of  age.  Moreover  the 
date  on  the  picture  is  equally  incompatible  with  this 
supposition. 


134 


LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON, 


XII. 
FRANCIS   HIGGINSON'S    HOUSEHOLD. 

My  Fathers  and  Brethren,  this  is  never  to  be  forgotten  that  New 
England  is  originally  a  plantation  of  Religion,  not  a  plantation  of 
Trade.  Let  Merchants  and  such  as  are  increasing  Cent  per  Cent  re- 
member this.  Let  others  that  have  come  over  since  at  several  times 
remember  this,  that  worldly  gain  was  not  the  end  and  designe  of  the 
people  of  New  England,  but  Religion.  And  if  any  man  amongst  us 
make  Religion  as  twelve  and  the  world  as  thirteen,  let  such  an  one 
know  he  hath  neither  the  spirit  of  a  true  New  England  man  nor  yet 
of  a  sincere  Christian. — Election  Sermon  (May  27,  1663):  "  The 
Cause  of  God  and  his  People  in  New  England^  p.  n,  by  the  Rev. 
John  Higginson* 

WE  learn  from  Cotton  Mather  that  the  widow  and 
children  of  Francis  Higginson  were  duly  cared  for  by 
the  colony.  On  Jan.  26,  1631,  she  wrote  to  Governor 
Winthrop  a  letter  of  thanks  for  "  two  kine  and  house 
and  money  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Coddington."  1  She 
removed  for  a  time  to  Charlestown,  we  know  not  why, 
and  afterward  to  New  Haven ;  and  during  one  of 
these  absences  we  know  that  one  hundred  and  fifty 
acres  of  land  —  more  than  the  average  allotment  — 
were  reserved  for  her  in  Salem,  by  the  Company,  should 
she  decide  to  return  thither.  In  the  earliest  manuscript 
book  of  records  of  town  lands  preserved  in  Salem,  there 

1  Felt's  Annals  (ist  ed.),  p.  522. 


FRANCIS  HIGGINSON'S  HOUSEHOLD.        135 

is  a  list  of  allotments  down  to  1636,  at  the  end  of  which 
appears,  "  For  Mrs.  Higenson  if  she  come  150  acres." 

Felt,  in  his  "  Memoir  of  Francis  Higginson," 2  thinks 
that  Ann  Higginson  went  to  New  Haven  soon  after 
1638,  when  the  place  was  first  settled  by  Theophilus 
Eaton  and  other  prominent  Puritans ;  and  he  thinks  that 
Eaton  —  the  first  Governor  of  the  New  Haven  Colony 
—  may  perhaps  have  been  her  brother,  from  the  fact 
that  one  of  her  sons  was  named  after  him,  and  that 
another  was  bound  to  Govenor  Eaton  as  a  "  servant " 
or  apprentice,  after  his  father's  death.8  She  died  at 
New  Haven  early  in  1640,  and  her  estate  was  the 
first  which  came  before  the  court  of  magistrates  for 
settlement,  after  the  planting  of  the  colony.  Pro- 
fessor Kingsley,  in  his  Historical  Discourse  at  New 
Haven  (1838),  preserves  for  us  the  record  of  the 
court  (Feb.  25,  1640),  —  modernizing  the  spelling, — 
and  states  that  the  court  was  professedly  guided 
in  its  decisions  solely  by  "  the  general  rules  of 
righteousness." 

Ann  Higginson 's  Estate. 

"  Mrs.  Higginson,  late  planter  of  Quinnipiac,  dying 
without  making  her  will,  and  leaving  behind  her  eight 
children,  an  inventory  of  her  estate  being  taken,  the 
court  disposed  of  her  estate  and  children  as  followeth, 

1  Essex  Inst.  Hist.  Coll.,  ix.  21. 

2  Reprinted  (1852)  from  the  "  New  England  Historic-Genea- 
logical Register." 

8  Leonard  Bacon  asserts  this  relationship  as  unquestionable, 
in  "  Genesis  of  the  New  England  Churches,"  p.  459. 


136  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

\ 

with  consent  and  approbation  of  Mr.  John  Higginson, 
her  eldest  son. 

"The  said  John  Higginson,  the  charges  of  his 
education  considered,  is  only  to  have  his  father's 
books,  together  with  the  value  of  £$  in  bedding  for 
his  portion. 

"  Francis  Higginson,  the  second  son,  and  Timothy 
the  third  son,  their  education  also  considered,  are  to 
have  each  of  them  ^20  for  their  portions. 

"  Theophilus  Higginson,  though  well  educated,  yet 
in  regard  of  his  helpfulness  to  his  mother  and  her 
estate,  is  to  have  ^40  for  his  portion. 

"Samuel  Higginson  is  also  to  have  ^40  for  his 
portion,  and  to  be  with  Mr.  Eaton  as  his  servant,  for 
the  full  term  of  two  years  from  the  first  of  March 
next  ensuing. 

"  Theophilus  and  Samuel  are  to  have  the  lot,  with  all 
the  accommodations  belonging  thereunto,  equally  to 
be  divided  between  them  for  ^50  of  their  portions. 

"Ann  Higginson,  her  daughter,  is  to  have  ^40 
for  her  portion,  and  her  mother's  old  clothes,  together 
with  the  remainder  of  the  estate,  when  the  debts  and 
other  portions  are  paid. 

"  Charles  Higginson  is  to  have  ^£40  to  his  portion, 
and  to  be  with  Thomas  Fugill  as  his  apprentice,  unto 
the  full  end  and  term  of  nine  years,  from  the  first  of 
March  next  ensuing  the  date  hereof;  and  the  said 
Thomas  Fugill  is  to  find  him  what  is  convenient  for 
him  as  a  servant,  and  to  keep  him  at  school  one  year, 
or  else  to  advantage  him  as  much  in  his  education  as 


FRANCIS  HIGGINSON  >S  HO  USE  HOLD.        1 3  7 

a  year's  learning  comes  to  ;  and  he  is  to  have  the 
benefit  of  the  use  of  his  portion  till  the  said  term  be 
expired,  and  at  the  end  thereof  to  pay  it  to  the  said 
Charles  Higginson,  but  if  he  die  before,  then  the  said 
Thomas  Fugill  is  to  pay  the  said  portion  to  the  rest 
of  his  brothers,  that  are  alive  at  the  end  of  said  nine 
years. 

"  Neophytus  Higginson l  being  with  Mr.  Hough  in 
the  Bay  of  Massachusetts  is  to  remain  with  him  and 
to  be  brought  up  with  him,  till  he  attain  the  full  age  of 
twenty  one  years,  and  in  the  mean  time  Mr.  Hough 
is  to  have  ^40  of  the  estate,  which  he  is  to  pay  to 
the  said  Neophytus  at  the  end  of  the  said  term,  as  his 
portion. 

"  When  the  farm  at  Saugus  is  sold,  it  is  to  be  equally 
divided  among  the  brothers."  2 

A  record  from  an  old  family  history  in  manuscript, 
preserved  in  the  family,  and  used  by  Dr.  Henry 
Wheatland  of  Salem  in  his  "  Materials  for  a  Gene- 
alogy of  the  Higginson  Family,'*8  carries  the  record 
on  to  the  end  of  the  lives  for  whose  uncertain  future 
the  New  Haven  Court  provided.  It  runs  thus  :  — 

Children  of  Francis  and  Ann  Higginson. 

".i.  John,  born  at  Claybrook  [Leicester,  England], 
Aug.  6,  1616. 

1  [The  only  one  of  these  children  born  at  Salem.] 

2  Kingsley's  Historical  Discourse,  p.  103. 
8  Essex  Inst.  Hist  Coll.,  v.  33. 


138  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

"  2.  Francis,  born  1617;  was  for  a  time  schoolmaster 
at  Cambridge  [U.  S.]  ;  went  to  Europe ;  resided  at 
London  for  some  time,  and  visited  several  of  the 
Universities  for  the  improvement  of  his  mind ;  settled 
as  a  minister  at  Kerby  Steven  in  Westmoreland,  Eng- 
land ;  and  there  he  died,  unmarried,  in  the  fifty-fifth 
year  of  his  age. 

"  3.  Timothy  was  a  mariner  and  died  unmarried. 

"4.  Theophilus  died  at  the  age  of  37,  leaving  one 
son,  Samuel,  born  at  New  Haven,  Aug.  26,  1640. 

"5.  Samuel,  Capt.  of  a  Man-of-War  in  Cromwell's 
time,  afterwards  Capt.  of  an  East-Indiaman,  died  at 
the  age  of  44. 

"  6.  Ann  married  Thomas  Chatfield  of  Guilford,  New 
Haven,  Easthampton.  L.  I. ;  probably  no  children. 

"  7.  Mary  died  Tuesday,  May  19th,  1629,  during 
the  passage,  aged  4  years. 

"  8.  Charles,  Captain  of  a  ship  in  the  Jamaica  trade, 
died  at  the  age  of  49. 

"  9.  Neophytus  died  at  the  age  of  about  20  years."  1 
\ 

Of  the  two  eldest  and  best  known  of  these  children, 

Cotton  Mather  gives  the  following  description :  — 

"  One  of  these,  Francis  by  name,  was  for  a  time  a 
school-master  at  our  Cambridge,  but  having  attained 
as  much  learning  as  New  England  could  then  afford, 

1  Manuscript  Book.  Compare  Wheatland  in  Essex  Inst. 
Hist.  Coll.,  v.  33;  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts,  p. 
21 1 ;  Mather's  Magnalia,  i.  330;  Kingsley's  Historical  Dis- 
course, p.  103. 


FRANCIS  HIGGINSON'S  HOUSEHOLD.        139 

he  was  desirous  to  visit  some  European  university; 
and  being  recommended  unto  Roterdam,  some  Dutch 
merchants,  out  of  respect  unto  an  hopeful  scholar  of 
New  England,  contributed  fourscore  pounds  in  money 
to  assist  his  juvenile  studies  at  Leyden.  Afterwards 
having  visited  some  other  universities  in  those  parts, 
he  returned  into  England ' ;  where  he  declined  a  settle- 
ment in  some  other,  which  he  thought  more  opinion- 
ative,  and  so  more  contentious  and  undesirable  places, 
to  which  he  was  invited,  and  settled  at  Kerby-Steven 
in  Westmoreland,  hoping  to  do  most  good  among  the 
ignorant  people  there.  But  it  pleased  the  God  of 
Heaven  to  permit  the  first  out-breaking  of  that  pro- 
digious and  comprehensive  heresy  Quakerism  in  that 
very  place ;  and  a  multitude  of  people  being  bewitched 
thereinto,  it  was  a  great  affliction  unto  this  worthy 
man ;  but  it  occasioned  his  writing  the  first  book  that 
ever  was  written  against  that  sink  of  blasphemies,  en- 
tituled,  The  Irreligion  of  Northern  Quakers.  This 
learned  person  was  the  author  of  a  Latin  treatise,  De 
quinq,  maximis .  Luminibus :  De  Luce  Increata  ;  De 
Luce  creata  ;  De  Lumine  Nature,  Gratice  6°  Gloria  ; 
and  having  illuminated  the  house  of  God  in  that  part 
of  it,  where  our  Lord  had  set  him  to  shine,  he  went 
away  to  the  light  of  glory,  in  the  fifty-fifth  year  of 
his  age. 

"  The  other  named  John,  has  been  on  some  laud- 
able accounts  another  Origen  ;  for  the  father  of  Origen 
would  kiss  the  uncovered  breast  of  that  excellent 
youth,  whilst  he  lay  asleep,  as  being  the  temple  where 


1 40  LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

the  spirit  of  God  was  resident,  and  as  Origen,  after  the 
untimely  death  of  his  father,  had  his  poor  mother  with 
six  other  children  to  look  after ;  whereupon  he  taught 
first  a  grammar-school,  and  then  betook  himself  unto 
the  study  of  divinity ;  thus  this  other  Higginson  after 
a  pious  childhood,  having  been  a  school-master  at 
Hartford,  and  a  minister  at  Saybrook,  and  afterwards 
at  Guilford,  became  at  length  in  the  year  1659,  a 
pastor,  and  a  rich  and  long  blessing,  succeeding  his 
father  in  his  church  at  Salem.  This  reverend  person 
has  been  always  valued  for  his  useful  preaching,  and 
his  holy  living;  and  besides  his  constant  labours  in 
the  pulpit,  whereby  his  own  flock  has  been  edified ; 
the  whole  country  has,  by  the  press,  enjoyed  some  of 
his  composures,  and  by  his  hand,  the  composures  of 
some  others  also,  passing  the  press,  have  been  accom- 
panied. Having  formerly  born  his  testimony  to,  The 
cause  of  God,  and  his  people  in  New  England,  in  a 
sermon  so  entituled,  which  he  preached  on  the  great- 
est anniversary  solemnity,  which  occurred  in  the  land, 
namely,  the  anniversary  election;  when  he  thought, 
that  the  advance  of  old  age  upon  him  directed  him  to 
live  in  the  hourly  expectation  of  death,  he  published  a 
most  savoury  book,  on  Our  dying  Saviour's  Legacy  of 
Peace  to  his  disciples  in  a  troublesome  world ;  with  a 
Discourse  on  the  Duty  of  Christians,  to  be  witnesses 
unto  Christ ;  unto  which  is  added,  some  Help  to  Self- 
Examination. 

"  Nevertheless,  this  true  Simeon  is  yet  waiting  for 
the  consolation  of  Israel.     This  good  old  man  is  yet 


FRANCIS  HIGGINSON'S  HOUSEHOLD.        T4I 

alive;  (in  the  year  1696)  arrived  unto  the  eightieth 
year  of  his  devout  age,  and  about  the  sixtieth  year  of 
his  publick  work,  and  he,  that  from  a  child  knew  the 
holy  scriptures,  does  at  those  years  wherein  men  use 
to  be  twice  children,  continue  preaching  them  with 
such  a  manly,  pertinent,  judicious  vigour,  and  with  so 
little  decay  of  his  intellectual  abilities,  as  is  indeed  a 
matter  of  just  admiration.  But  there  was  a  famous 
divine  in  Germany,  who  on  his  death  bed  when  some 
of  his  friends  took  occasion  to  commend  his  past 
painful,  faithful,  and  fruitful  ministry,  cried  out  unto 
them  [Auferte  Ignem  adhuc  enim  puleus  habeo  /]  Oh  / 
bring  not  the  sparks  of  your  praises  near  me,  as  long 
as  I  have  any  chaff  left  in  me  !  And  I  am  sensible 
that  I  shall  receive  the  like  check  from  this  my  rever- 
end father,  if  I  presume  to  do  him  the  justice,  which 
a  few  months  hence  will  be  done  him,  in  all  the 
churches;  nor  would  I  deserve  at  his  hands,  the 
blow  which*Constantine  gave  to  him,  who  Imperatorem 
ausus  est,  in  Os  Beatum  die  ere"  * 

Cotton  Mather  did  not  in  any  respect  exaggerate 
the  important  part  rendered  in  the  colony  by  the 
eldest  son  of  Francis  Higginson.  From  childhood, 
John  Higginson  took  a  prominent  part  in  affairs,  being 
at  thirteen  a  member  of  his  father's  church;  at 
twenty  being  sent  at  the  head  of  a  commission  with 
Lieut.  Edward  Gibbons,  and  Cutshamekin,  Sagamore 
of  Massachusetts,  to  wait  on  Canonicus,  chief  of  the 

1  Magnalia  (ed.  1820),  i.  330,  331. 


I42  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

Narragansett,  concerning  the  murder  of  John  Oldham, 
while  on  a  trading  voyage  to  Block  Island ; *  and  at 
twenty-one  being  appointed  scribe  of  the  Cambridge 
Assembly,  to  take  down  its  proceedings  in  shorthand, 
—  a  report  unfortunately  lost.  He  was  afterwards 
teacher  of  the  grammar  school  at  Hartford ;  was 
chaplain  of  the  Fort  at  Saybrook,  where  he  took  part 
in  the  defence  conducted  by  the  celebrated  Lion  Gar- 
diner ;  and  went  afterwards  to  Guilford,  Conn.,  where 
he  was  assistant  to  Rev.  Henry  Whitfield,  whose 
daughter  Sarah  he  married,  the  wedding  having  taken 
place  in  the  old  stone  mansion,  still  standing,  and 
now  the  oldest  house  within  the  original  limits  of  the 
United  States.  His  mother  having  lately  died,  he 
was  about  removing  to  London  in  1659,  to  settle  her 
estate,  when  the  vessel  which  bore  himself  and  family 
was  driven  by  stress  of  weather  into  Salem  harbor, 
where  he  was  persuaded  to  remain,  and  take  charge 
of  the  church  founded  by  his  father  thirty  years  before. 
He  was  ordained  in  August,  1660,  and  remained  in 
continuous  service  until  Dec.  9,  1708,  winning  for 
himself  the  honorable  title  of  "the  Nestor  of  the 
New  England  clergy." 

John  Higginson  undoubtedly  sympathized  with  the 
prevalent  hostility  to  the  Friends  or  Quakers,  —  a  feel- 
ing not  diminished  in  his  case,  doubtless,  by  the  fact 
that  John  Smith  of  Salem  was  arrested  for  making  a 
disturbance  at  his  ordination  by  crying  out,  "  What  you 
are  going  about  to  set  up,  our  God  is  pulling  down." 
1  Felt's  Annals  of  Salem  (ist  ed.),  p.  99. 


FRANCIS  HIGGINSON'S  HOUSEHOLD.        I43 

He  is  even  reported  in  Bishop's  "  New  England 
Judged,"  but  without  specifying  time  or  place,  to  have 
characterized  the  Inner  Light,  as  then  and  there  man- 
ifested, as  being  "  a  stinking  vapor  from  hell."  x  But 
his  name  is  not  identified,  I  believe,  with  any  of  the 
judicial  cruelties  aimed  at  these  persecuted  people ;  2 
though  it  is  very  probable  that  he  fully  approved  the 
action  of  the  county  court  when  it  sentenced  Thomas 
Maule,  known  to  the  readers  of  Hawthorne's  "  House 
of  the  Seven  Gables,"  to  be  whipped  ten  stripes  for 
saying  that  "Mr.  Higginson  preached  lies,  and  his 
doctrine  was  the  doctrine  of  devils."  8 

If,  however,  the  younger  Higginson  shared  in  this 
respect  the  sins  and  delusions  of  his  time,  —  and  we 
must  remember  that  even  the  benevolent  Samuel 
Sewall  called  Quakerism  "devil-worship,"4  —  he  par- 
tially atoned  for  it  by  his  courageous  attitude,  even  in 
old  age,  against  the  witchcraft  delusion  and  against 

1  HalloweH's  Quaker  Invasion  of  Massachusetts,  pp.  85,  95. 

2  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  one  John  Higgington  in  England, 
who  may  have  been  a  relative,  —  so  loose  was  then  the  general 
practice  in  respect  to  spelling,  —  was  the  second  on  the  list  of 
Friends  who  signed  a  memorial,  endorsed  by  George   Fox, 
which  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  first  "  Meeting  for  Disci- 
pline" at  Durham,  in  1653.    See  Bowden's  History  of  Friends 
in  America  (1850),  i.  209. 

8  Sewall's  Diary,  i.  415.  Goodell,  in  Essex  Inst.  Hist.  Coll., 
iii.,  gives  a  full  account  of  Maule,  who  was  afterward  indicted 
again  and  acquitted,  and  published  two  pamphlets,  one  of 
which  was  entitled  "Persecutors  Mauled  with  their  own 
weapons." 

4  Sewall's  Diary,  ii.  232. 


144  LIFE  OF  FRANdS  HIGGINSON. 

African  slavery.  His  position  on  the  former  question 
was  the  more  remarkable,  as  his  colleague  Nicholas 
Noyes  was  one  of  the  chief  prosecutors;  and  John 
Higginson  was  then  seventy- six  years  of  age.  Yet  he 
was  ready  to  testify  in  favor  of  Goodwife  Buckley,  ar- 
raigned as  a  witch,  and  attested  her  to  be  "  a  serious 
godly  woman."  This  involved  him  in  such  reproach 
among  the  fanatics  that  his  own  daughter  Anna,  wife 
of  Capt.  William  Dollibar  of  Gloucester,  was  arrested 
as  a  witch,  and  confined  for  a  time  in  Salem  jail ;  an  in- 
fallible proof  of  his  courage  and  independence  accord- 
ing to  the  chief  historian  of  the  delusion  since  those 
who  instigated  the  excitement  "were  sure  to  punish  all 
who  were  suspected  to  disapprove  of  the  proceedings. " l 
"  No  character  in  our  annals,"  continues  Upham, 
"  shines  with  a  purer  lustre."  John  Dunton,  the  Lon- 
don bookseller,  visited  him  in  1686,  when  seventy, 
and  says  of  him  :  "  All  men  look  to  him  as  to  a  com- 
mon father ;  and  old  age,  for  his  sake,  is  a  reverent 
thing.  He  is  eminent  for  all  the  graces  that  adorn  a 
minister.  His  very  presence  puts  vice  out  of  counte- 
nance \  his  conversation  is  a  glimpse  of  heaven."  He 
had  been,  in  the  words  of  the  Massachusetts  Com- 
pany's first  letter  to  Endicott,  "  trained  up  in  litera- 
ture "  at  the  grammar  school  in  Leicester,  and  was 
therefore  recommended  for  a  medical  education ;  2 
but  the  inevitable  influence  of  the  time  led  him  to 
the  profession  of  his  father,  while  he  always  retained 

1  Upham's  Salem  Witchcraft,  ii.  194,  363. 

2  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts,  p.  166. 


FRANCIS  HIGGINSON'S  HOUSEHOLD.         145 

that  breadth  of  intellectual  interest  which  held  out  so 
remarkably,  amidst  many  intellectual  vagaries,  in  the 
second  generation  of  Massachusetts  Puritans.  He 
was  one  of  the  first  men  in  the  colony  to  urge  the 
importance  of  historical  investigations,  uniting  with 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Thacher  in  an  address  "To  the 
Reader,"  prefaced  to  Morton's  New  England's  Memo- 
rial, to  which  address  the  name  of  John  Higginson  is 
first  signed.  The  signers  say  :  "  It  is  much  to  be  de- 
sired there  might  be  extant  A  Compleat  History  of  the 
United  Colonies  of  New  England  .  .  that  the  true 
Originals  of  these  plantations  may  not  be  lost,  that 
New  England  in  all  times  to  come,  may  remember 
the  day  of  her  smallest  things,  and  that  there  may  be 
a  furniture  of  Materials  for  a  true  and  full  history  in 
after-times."  And  they  express  the  hope  that  "what 
is  wanting  in  this  Narrative  may  be  supplied  by  some 
others ;  and  so  in  the  issue,  from  divers  Memorials 
there  may  be  matter  for  a  just  History  of  New  Eng- 
land, in  the  Lord's  good  time."  This  preface  bears 
date  March  26,  1669. 

John  Higginson  also  wrote  the  preface  to  Cotton 
Mather's  "  Magnalia  Christi  Americana,"  and  says  in 
it  of  himself,  Jan.  25,  1697  :  — 

".  As  for  myself,  having  been,  by  the  mercy  of  God, 
now  above  sixty-eight  years  in  New  England,  and 
served  the  Lord  and  his  people,  in  my  weak  meas- 
ure, sixty  years  in  the  ministry  of  the  gospel,  I  may 
now  say  in  my  old  age,  /  have  seen  all  that  the  Lord 


146  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

hath  done  for  his  people  in  New  England,  and  have 
known  the  beginning  and  progress  of  these  churches 
unto  this  day,  and  having  read  over  much  of  this  his- 
tory, I  cannot  but  in  the  love  and  fear  of  God,  bear 
witness  to  the  truth  of  it."  1 

And  at  the  end  of  the  preface  he  gives  a  solitary 
proof  that  he  too,  at  the  age  of  eighty,  shared  the 
current  tendency  to  Latin  verse-making,  —  he  himself 
calling  it  "  poetry,"  —  to  this  effect :  — 
"  Epigramma  Matheros. 

"  O  Nimium  Dilecte  Deo,  Venerande  Mathere 
Gaudens  tot  Natos  Christi  numerare  Ministros  ! 
Dat  Deus  ut  tales  insurgant  usque  Matheri, 
Et  Nati  Natorum,  et  qui  Nascentur  ab  illis. 
Has  inter  Stellas  fulgens,  Cottone  Mathere, 
Patrum  tu  sequeris  vestigia  semper  adorans, 
Phosphorus  ast  aliis!  "  2 

The  quaint  and  inexhaustible  diaries  of  our  New 
England  Pepys,  Samuel  Sewall,  have  repeated  refer- 
ences to  John  Higginson,  with  whom  Sewall  often  in- 
terchanged books  and  papers,  and  sometimes  visits  or 
dinners,  when  the  one  was  in  Boston  or  the  other  in 
Salem.8  More  important  is  the  fine  letter  written  by 
Sewall  to  John  Higginson  when  the  former  stood  up, 
almost  unsupported,  to  protest  in  his  tract  called 
"The  Selling  of  Joseph,"  against  the  African  slave 

1  Magnalia,  i.  10.  2  Ibid.,  13. 

8  Sewall's  Diary,  i.  89,  90,  140,  143,  227,  249,  346,  etc.  John 
Higginson's  grandson  (John  Higginson  3d),  married  Sewall's 
daughter.  Ibid.,  ii,  26. 


FRANCIS  HIGGINSON1  S  HOUSEHOLD.        147 

trade  and  slavery  itself.  He  writes  to  him  (April  13, 
1 706)  :  "  Amidst  the  Frowns  and  hard  Words  I  have 
met  with  for  this  undertaking,  it  is  no  small  refresh- 
ment to  me,  that  I  have  the  Learned,  Reverend,  and 
Aged  Mr.  Higginson  for  my  Abettor.  By  the  inter- 
position of  this  Brest- Work,  I  hope  to  carry  on  and 
manage  this  enterprise  with  Safety  and  Success."  l 
John  Higginson  was  at  this  time  ninety  years  old. 
Sewall  describes  his  death  two  years  later,  Dec.  8, 
1708,  and  his  funeral  " a  little  before  sunset"  five 
days  after ;  and  the  annalist,  ever  sure  to  mingle  ac- 
curate observation  with  moralizing,  reports  that  all  the 
six  bearers  wore  their  own  hair.2  This  had  doubtless 
some  interest  in  the  observer's  mind,  from  the  fact 
that  at  one  of  Sewall' s  last  interviews  with  John  Hig- 
ginson the  venerable  divine  showed  him  a  treatise  on 
"  Perriwigs,"  which  Sewall  wished  to  have  printed  but 
which  the  author  withheld  from  publication.8 

His  funeral  sermon  w&s  preached  by  the  Rev. 
Cotton  Mather,  under  the  title,  "  The  Happy  Dismis- 
sal of  a  Holy  Believer,  a  Funeral  Sermon  on  the  Death 
of  the  Reverend  John  Higginson,  with  Memoirs  of  his 
Life,  1 709."  Copies  of  this  discourse  are  to  be  found 
in  the  Prince  Library  and  the  Library  of  the  American 
Antiquarian  Society  at  Worcester,  Mass.4 

1  -SewalPs  Letter-Book,  i.  326 ;  Moore's  Slavery  in  Massachu- 
setts, p.  89. 

2  Sewall's  Diary,  ii.  246. 
8  Ibid.,  i.  464. 

4  The  following  list  of  the  Rev.  John  Higginson's  published 
writings  is  compiled  from  the  "  Prince  Library  Catalogue  "  of 


148  LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

It  is  unnecessary  here  to  trace  into  its  wide  ramifi- 
cations the  posterity  of  Francis  Higginson. 

The   career   of  his   son  John,  through  whom  the 

the  Boston  Public  Library  (1870).     It  is  possible,  however, 
that  it  is  incomplete. 

1.  The  Cause  of  God  and  his  People  in  New-England.     [An  Elec- 
tion] Sermon,  on  the  27  day  of    May,    1663.     Cambridge:   Printed 
by  Samuel  Green,  1663.     PP-  (4)  24-    4°-     [Extracts  are  also  included 
in  Elijah's  Mantle   ...  by  Four  Servants  of  God.     Boston,   1722, 
edited  by  Increase  Mather.     John  Higginson's  Sermon  occupies  the 
second  volume.] 

2.  Our  Dying  Saviour's  Legacy  of  Peace.     Also  a  Discourse  on  the 
Two  Witnesses.    Boston :  Printed  by  Samuel  Green  for  John  Usher, 
near  the  Town  House,  1686.    pp.  (14)  205.     8°. 

3.  Address  to  the  Reader  of  [N.  Morton's]   New  England's  Me- 
moriall.     Boston,  1669.     [Signed  also  by  Thomas  Thacher.] 

4.  Epistle    Dedicatory    to    [N.    Noyes's]    New-England's    Duty. 
Boston,   1669.      [Noyes  was   J.   H.'s  colleague.      The  Epistle  in- 
cludes 10  pp.] 

5.  Epistle  to  the  Reader  of  [J.  Male's]  Modest  Enquiry  into  the 
Nature  of  Witchcraft.     Boston,  1702. 

'      6.    Preface   to   [Cotton   Mather's]    Winter   Meditations.      Boston, 
1693.     [pp.  16.] 

7.  [and  William  Hubbard],  A  Testimony  to  the  Order  of  the 
Gospel,  In  the  Churches  of  New  England.  Boston,  1701.  pp.  15. 
[Reprinted  also  in  Samuel  Mather's  The  Self- Justiciary  corrected. 
Boston,  1707,  where  it  occupies  pp.  19-27.] 

All  these  books  are  in  the  Prince  Library  (Boston  Public 
Library);  the  Harvard  College  Library  has  Nos.  i,  3,  4,  5; 
the  Library  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society,  at  Worcester, 
Mass.,  has  Nos.  i,  2,  5,  7  ;  the  Boston  Athenaeum  Library  has 
No.  i ;  and  I  myself  have  Nos.  2  and  6.  John  Higginson's 
"Advice  to  his  Children,"  called  his  Dying  Testimony,  was 
apparently  not  published  during  his  lifetime,  but  was  printed 
from  manuscript  in  the  hands  of  a  descendant  (B.  F.  Browne, 
Esq.,  of  Salem,  Mass.),  in  the  Essex  Institute  Historical  Col- 
lections, ii.  97.  Compare  Mass.  Hist,  Coll.,  3d  ser.,  vii.  222. 


FRANCIS  HIGGINSON'S  HOUSEHOLD.        149 

whole  line  of  the  American  descent  flowed,  has  been  al- 
ready sketched.  Francis  Higginson's  oldest  grandson, 
also  named  John,  was  a  prominent  merchant  and  mag- 
istrate of  Salem,  long  a  member  of  the  Governor's 
Council,  and  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  regiment.  His 
brother  Nathaniel — also  a  grandson  of  Francis  — 
graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1670,  and  soon  went 
to  England,  becoming  ultimately  the  Governor  of  the 
English  colony  of  Madras,  where  he  bore  an  honor- 
able reputation.  An  extended  correspondence  be- 
tween him  and  his  brother  John  (1692-1700)  has 
been  published  in  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Col- 
lections.1 Hopes  seem  to  have  been  entertained  of 
his  appointment  as  governor  of  the  Massachusetts 
Colony,  when  he  died  in  England  in  1708,  the  year 
of  his  father's  death.  The  succeeding  representatives 
of  the  name  for  several  generations  were  men  of 
public  spirit  and  public  office  in  the  Massachusetts 
Colony.  The  last  of  one  line  of  descent  —  and  that 
the  elder  —  was  a  woman  of  remarkable  qualities, 
Miss  Mehitable  Higginson,  who  with  her  widowed 
mother  kept  for  many  years  the  leading  school 
for  girls  in  Salem,  and  educated  successive  genera- 
tions. There  is  much  testimony  to  her  influence  as 
a  teacher.  One  of  her  pupils  says  of  her :  "  Being 

1  Third  series,  vii.  196.  Wheeler,  the  historian  of  Madras, 
says  of  him :  "  Higginson  seems  to  have  been  the  first  governor 
of  Madras  on  record  who  retired  from  office  without  a  stain 
upon  his  name."  Compare  Sibley's  "  Harvard  Graduates/'  ii. 
3^.  \ 


LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 

asked  what  she  taught,  she  laughingly  replied  :  '  Eth- 
ics.' Yet  to  a  superficial  observer  it  might  seem 
that  she  taught  nothing.  Her  manners  were  courtly, 
and  her  conversation  was  replete  with  dignity,  kind 
feeling,  and  sound  sense."  Hawthorne  is  said  to  have 
drawn  from  her  his  Esther  in  the  "  Province  House 
Tales,"  though  Hawthorne's  sister-in-law,  Miss  E.  P. 
Peabody,  thinks  the  resemblance  very  remote.  It  lay 
partly  in  the  fact  that  both  she  and  her  mother  were 
stanch  loyalists,  like  Esther,  never  would  acknowledge 
the  validity  of  the  American  Republic,  and  were  in 
part  supported  by  a  pension  from  the  crown  in  consid- 
eration of  their  loyalty.  The  mother  died  at  the  age 
of  ninety- four,  and  the  daughter  (July  19,  1846)  at 
eighty-two.1 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Francis  Higginson  was 
the  progenitor  of  three  conspicuous  political  leaders 
in  New  England  at  the  period  immediately  succeed- 
ing the  Revolution,  —  George  Cabot,  John  Lowell,  and 
Stephen  Higginson.  In  our  own  day  the  list  of  his 
descendants  has  included  one  of  the  three  greatest 
of  the  Union  generals,  William  Tecumseh  Sherman,  as 
it  also  included  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  of  the 
"  War- Governors,"  John  Albion  Andrew.  Among  his 
posterity  are,  or  have  lately  been,  three  United  States 

1  For  a  full  account  of  Miss  Hetty  Higginson,  as  she  was 
usually,  called,  see  the  "Salem  Gazette,"  July  21,  1846;  and 
there  is  a  delightful  sketch  of  her  by  Miss  E.  P.  Peabody  in 
Barnard's  "American  Journal  of  Education"  (July  15,  1880), 
v.  588. 


FRANCIS  HIGGINSON^S  HOUSEHOLD.      I5i 

senators,  —  William  Maxwell  Evarts,  George  Frisbie 
Hoar,  and  John  Sherman,  —  with  three  members  of  the 
lower  house,  —  John  Forrester  Andrew,  Henry  Cabot 
Lodge,  and  Sherman  Hoar.  The  list  further  includes 
prominent  lawyers,  such  as  Ebenezer  Rockwood  Hoar 
and  John  Lowell ;  clergymen,  such  as  Stephen  Hig- 
ginson  Tyng,  William  Henry  Channing,  and  James 
Handasyd  Perkins ;  physicians,  such  as  Samuel  Cabot, 
Walter  Channing  the  younger,  Charles  Pickering  Put- 
nam, and  James  Jackson  Putnam  \  authors  and  schol- 
ars, such  as  William  Ellery  Channing  the  younger, 
Charles  Timothy  Brooks,  James  Elliot  Cabot,  and  John 
Torrey  Morse ;  university  professors  such  as  Simeon  E. 
Baldwin  and  Edward  Channing ;  soldiers  of  the  Civil 
War,  such  as  Charles  Russell  Lowell,  James  Jackson 
Lowell,  Stephen  George  Perkins,  Charles  James  Paine, 
Henry  Lee  Higginson,  Francis  L.  Lee,  Edward  Clark 
Cabot ;  naval  officers,  such  as  Francis  John  Higgin- 
son ;  and  citizens  highly  eminent  for  public  service, 
such  as  Henry  Lee  and  Robert  Treat  Paine.  Thus 
widely  spread  and  intermingled,  after  six  or  seven  gen- 
erations of  descent,  may  be  a  single  strain  of  Puritan 
ancestry.  In  this  instance  the  stock  has  surely  shown 
some  vitality  and  vigor,  and  perhaps  something  of 
transmitted  public  spirit,  and  of  interest  in  things 
higher  than  those  which  are  merely  material.  These 
descendants  have  remained  loyal,  as  Americans,  to  the 
verdict  of  their  early  progenitor,  that  "  one  sup  of  New 
England  air  is  better  than  a  whole  flagon  of  old  Eng- 
lish ale  ; "  and  many  of  them  have  shown  in  their  lives 


152 


LIFE   OF  FRANCIS  HIGGINSON. 


an  adherence  to  John  Higginson's  opinion,  "that  if 
any  man  amongst  us  make  religion  as  twelve  and  the 
world  as  thirteen,  let  such  an  one  know  he  hath  neither 
the  spirit  of  a  true  New  England  man  nor  yet  of  a 
sincere  Christian." 


INDEX. 


ACKERMANN'S      "  Cambridge,' 

cited,  8. 

Adams,  Brooks,  cited,  112,  123. 
Adams,  Charles  Francis,  85. 
Adams,  Herbert  B.,  cited,  70. 
Adams,  Thomas,  119. 
Andrew,  Gov.  J.  A.,  150. 
Andrew,  J.  F.,  151. 
Andrews.  Mrs.,  4. 
Angel,  Rev.  Mr.,  24. 
Aristotle,  9,  13. 
Ascham,  Roger,  cited,  9,  10. 
Aubrey,  John,  n. 
.  Aulus  Gellius,  13. 


BACON,  Rev.  Leonard,  cited,  32, 
77,  86,  135. 

Bains,  Rev.  Mr.,  25. 

Baldwin,  Prof.  S.  E.,  151. 

Bancroft,  George,  cited,  123. 

Barry's  "  History  of  Massachu- 
setts," cited,  70. 

Bass  Rocks,  the,  98. 

Beecher   or   Becher,   Captain,   52, 

73- 

Bentley,  Rev.  Dr.,  83,  131. 
Bishop's  "  New  England  Judged," 

quoted,  143. 
Borley,  Captain,  52. 
Bowden's  "Friends  in  America," 

quoted,  143. 
Bradford,  Gpv.,  77,  85,  no. 


Brewster,  Rev.  Mr.,  127. 

Brian,  Rev.  Dr.,  25. 

Bright,  Rev.  Francis,  33,  36. 

Brooks,  Rev.  C.  T.,  151. 

Browne,  B.  F.,  148. 

Browne,  John,  33,  115,  116,  117, 

118,  120. 

Browne,  Kellam,  115. 
Browne,  Mr.,  54. 
Browne,  Samuel,  33,  no,  115,  n 6, 

117,  118,  120. 
Browne,  Sir  Thomas,  14. 
Brownes,  the,  120, 121. 
Buckley,  Goodwife,  144. 


CABOT,  Lt.-Col.  E.  C.,  151. 
Cabot,  George,  150. 
Cabot,  J.  E.,  151. 
Cabot,  Dr.  Samuel,  151. 
Cambridge  (England)  University 

three  centuries  ago,  8. 
Canonicus,  an  Indian,  142. 
Cave,  Lady,  22. 
Chalmers's   "Annals,"  cited,   72, 

123. 

Channing,  Prof.  Edward,  151. 
Channing,  Dr.  Walter,  151. 
Channing,  W.  E.  (the  younger), 

151. 

Channing,  Rev.  W.  H.,  151. 
Chase,  J.  Eastman,  132. 
Chester,  Col.  J.  L.,  cited,  4,  5,  6. 


154 


INDEX. 


Chrysostom,  St.  John,  13. 
Cicero,  10. 

Clap,  Capt.  Roger,  106,  125. 
Clayton,  Richard,  31. 
Coddington,  Mr.,  134. 
Colbron,  William,  115. 
Coleman,  Mrs.,  4. 
Conformists,  revolt  of  the,  109. 
Covenant  framed  by  Francis  Hig- 

ginson    made    afterward    more 

strict,  83. 

Cowie,  Rev.  Dr.,  6. 
Cradock,  Matthew,  119. 
Cranmer,  Rt.  Rev.  Thomas,  8. 
Crashaw,  Richard,  9. 
Cudworth,  Ralph,  9. 
Cutshamekin,  an  Indian,  141. 
Cyprian,  quoted,  20. 


DAVENPORT,  John,  31,  116. 

Demosthenes,  10, 13. 

D'Ewes,    Sir    Simonds,    n,    13, 

14. 

Dollibar,  Anna  (Higginson),  144. 
Dollibar,  Capt.  William,  144. 
Dudley,  Gov.  Thomas,   69,   115, 

128,  129. 
Dunton,  John,  144. 


EATON,  Theophilus,  135,  136. 
Edmonds,  James,  31. 
Eliot,  Rev.  John,  8, 106. 
Elizabeth,  Queen,  10. 
Endicott,  Gov.  John,  33,  69,  73,  77 

78,85,  no,  117,  118,  119,  121, 

144. 

Endicott,  Hon.  W.  C,,  quoted,  121. 
Erasmus,  Desiderius,  9,  13. 
Essex  Institute  Hist.  Collections, 

cited,  135,  138,  143. 


Eugenius  (Sterne's),  8. 
Euripides,  10. 
Evarts,  W.  M.,  149. 
Everett,  Edward,  quoted,  106. 
Ezekiel,  quoted,  16. 


"  FAREWELL  !  dear  England,"  29. 
Felt,  Joseph  B.,  cited,  37,  70,  71, 

54,  123,  124,  125,  126,  135. 
Flamsteed,  John,  8. 
Florus,  13. 

Force's  "  Tracts,"  cited,  90. 
Fox,  George,  86. 
Fugill,  Thomas,  136,  137. 
Fuller,  George,  132. 
Fuller,  Dr.  Samuel,  77. 
Fuller,  Thomas,  9,  12. 
Fuller's  "Cambridge,"  cited,  8. 


GARDINER,  Lion,  142. 
Genealogy,  the  Higginson,  137. 
Gibbons,   Maj.-Gen.  Edward,  88, 

141. 

Gibs  or  Gibbs,  Mr.,  54. 
Gilbert,  Mrs.,  4. 
Goffe,  Thomas,  56,  119. 
Gould,  A.  A.,  cited,  98. 
Graham e's  "  History  of  the  United 

States,"  cited,  123. 
Graves,  Thomas,  31,  33,  73,  90. 

HALE,  Rev.  J.,  148. 

Hallowell's   "Quaker    Invasion," 

cited,  143. 
Hartley,  David,  8. 
Harvard,  John,  14. 
Harwood,  George,  119. 
Haven,  S.  F.,  70. 
Herodotus,  10. 
Hewson,  John,  31. 


INDEX. 


155 


Higginson,  Ann  (wife  of  Francis), 

26,  134,  135. 
Higginson,     Ann     (daughter     of 

Francis),  136,  138. 
Higginson,  Charles,  136,  137,  138. 
Higginson,  Dorothy,  3. 
Higginson,  Elizabeth,  3,  5. 
Higginson,  Rev.  Francis,  celebra- 
ted by  Cotton  Mather,  2. 

his  ancestry,  2. 

his  university  life,  8. 

his  life  at  Claybrooke,  Leicester, 

IS- 

his  sailing  for  America,  29. 

his  remarks  on  shipboard,  29. 

Johnson's  verses  about  him,  30. 

his  agreement  with   Massachu- 
setts Company,  34. 

"  Generall  Considerations,"  38. 

the  discussion  as  to  its  author- 
ship, 39. 

his  sea-voyage  and  journal.  47. 

the  number  of  his  companions, 
68. 

his  letter  home,  71. 

his  change  of  opinion,  76. 

his  ordination,  76. 

his  confession  of  faith  and  cove- 
nant, 79. 

his  "New  England's  Plantation," 
89. 

his  parsonage,  124. 

his  personal  appearance,  125. 

his  preaching,  126. 

his  illness  and  death,  128. 

his.  influence,  131. 

his  epitaph,  131. 

his  portrait,  131. 

his  household,  134. 

his  posterity,  148. 
Higginson,  Francis  (second  son  of 

Rev.  Francis),  136,  138. 


Higginson,  F.  J.,  151. 
Higginson  genealogy,  the,  137. 
Higginson,  George,  3. 
Higginson,  Joane,  her   bequest  to 

the  poor,  2,  3. 

Higginson,   Rev.   John,    of    Clay- 
brooke, 3,  4,  14. 
Higginson,  John  (son  of  Rev.  John 

Higginson  of  Claybrooke),  4,  5. 
Higginson,  Rev.  John  (of  Salem), 
eldest   son   and  successor  of 
Francis. 

his   description  of    his  father's 
preaching,  39. 

his  early  youth,  78,  127. 

provision  made  for  him,  136. 

his  birthday,  137. 

his  embassy  among  Indians,  141. 

his  career,  142. 

his  opinions,  142-144. 

his  anti-slavery  position,  147. 

his  death,  147. 

his  writings,  148. 
Higginson,  Joyce,  3. 
Higginson,  Mary,  51,  53,  138. 
Higginson,  Mehitable,  149. 
Higginson,  Nathaniel,  4,  149. 
Higginson,  Neophytus,  137,  138. 
Higginson,  Nicholas,  4,  5,  6. 
Higginson,  Robert,  3. 
Higginson,  Samuel,  53,  136,  138. 
Higginson,  Stephen,  149. 
Higginson,  Theophilus,  136,  138. 
Higginson,  Thomas,  son  of  Joane, 

2,3- 

Higginson,  Thomas,  Jr.,  3. 

Higginson,  T.  W.,  quoted,  I. 
Higginson,  Timothy,  136,  138. 
Higginson,  Ursula,  3. 
Higginson,  William,  4. 
Higginton,  John,  143. 
Hildersham,  Arthur,  17,  32,  33. 


156 


INDEX. 


Hoar,  E.  R.,  151. 

Hoar,  G.  F.,  151. 

Hoar,  Sherman,  151. 

Holland,  Lord,  12. 

Hooker,  Thomas,  17. 

Horace,  14. 

Hough,  Mr.,  137. 

Houghton,  Mr.,  129. 

Howe,  Rev.  Mr.,  25. 

Huber's  "  English    Universities," 

cited,  ii. 

Humfrey,  John,  31,  32,  33,  115. 
Hutchinson,  Gov.  Thomas,  cited, 

35>  38>  39,  4°>  46,  47,  75- 


INDIANS,    American,    description 

of,  104. 
Isocrates,  10. 


JAMES  I.,  King,  12,  13. 
Janus,  i. 

Johnson,  Lady  Arbella,  32,  128, 
Johnson,  Isaac,  32,  73,  115,  116, 

119. 

Johnson,  Dr.  Samuel,  u. 
Jortin,  John,  8. 
Josselyn,  John,  quoted,  96. 
Juvenal,  14. 

RENNET'S    "  Chronicle,"    cited, 

13. 
Kingsley's  "Historical  Discourse,' 

cited,  135,  138. 

LAUD,  William,  Archbishop,  n, 

18,  25. 

Lee,  Col.  F.  L.,  151. 
Lee,  Col.  Henry,  132,  151. 


incoln,  Countess  of,  69. 

ions  attributed  to  America,  96. 

,ivy,  10. 

Lodge,  H.  C.,  149. 
Lovelocks,   origin   suggested    for, 

104. 

Lowell,  Gen.  C.  R.,  151. 
Lowell,  John,  150. 
Lowell,  Lt.  J.  J.,  151. 
Lucretius,  13. 


"  MALLEUS  Haereticorum,"  33. 

Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  Rec- 
ords of,  cited,  32,  116. 

Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  trans- 
fer of  charter  of,  112. 

Massachusetts  Historical  Collec- 
tions, cited,  71,  82,  83. 

Masson,  David,  cited,  u,  13, 
14. 

Mather,  Rev.  Cotton,  cited,  2,  15, 
79,  87,  88,  124,  128,  131,  134, 
138,  141,  145,  H7- 

Mather,  Rev.  Increase,  148. 

Mather,  Rev.  Samuel,  148. 

Maule,  Thomas,  143. 

**  Mayflower,"  the,  carried  colonists 
to  Salem,  89. 

Meare,  Mr.,  52.  v 

Mede,  Joseph,  12. 

Milton,  John,  9,  n,  12,  13,  14. 

Moore's  "  Slavery  in  Massachu- 
setts," cited,  147. 

More,  Henry,  9. 

Morse,  J.  T.,  149. 

Morton,  Thomas,  of  Merry  Mount, 
118. 

Morton's  "  New  England's  Me- 
morial," cited,  76,  78,  79,  81, 
84,  85,  no,  123,  126,  127,  145, 
148. 


INDEX. 


Mullinger's  "  Cambridge  in  the 
Seventeenth  Century,"  cited,  9, 
10,  n,  12,  13. 

Minister,  John  of,  no. 

NEAL'S  "  History  of  the  Puritans," 
quoted,  126. 

Nehum-kek  or  Naumkeag,  after- 
ward Salem,  107,  124. 

Nichols's  "  Leicestershire,"  cited, 

5- 

Noah,  i. 

Nowell,  Increase,  31,  32,  115. 
Noyes,  Rev.  Nicholas,  144,  148. 

OCKLEY,  Simon,  8. 
Oldham,  John,  142. 
Ordination,  the  first  American,  76. 
Osgood's    "Sketch    of    Salem," 
cited,  77. 

PAINE,  Gen.  C.  J.,  151. 

Paine,  R.  T.,  151. 

Palfrey,  Dr.  J.  G.,  cited,  76,   77, 

112,   I23. 

Peacock's  "Statutes  of  Cam- 
bridge, "cited,  12. 

Perkins,  John,  4,  5. 

Perkins,  Rev.  J.  H.,  151. 

Perkins,  Lt.  S.  G.,  151. 

Peterborough,  Bishop  of,  13. 

Pinchon,  Will.,  115,  116,  119. 

Pindar,  13. 

Plato,  9,  14. 

Plautus,  10. 

Powers,  John,  12. 

Prince,  Thomas,  33. 

Privations  of  Salem  colonists,  125. 

Puritan  Clergy,  their  functions, 
125. 


j  Putnam,  Dr.  C.  P.,  151. 
Putnam,  Dr.  J.  J.,  151. 


"  RADICAL  "  magazine,  cited,  81. 
"  Religion  as  twelve  and  the  world 

as  thirteen,"  134,  150. 
Revell,  John,  119. 
Richardson,  Rev.  Mr.,  25. 
Robinson,     Rev.     John,    quoted, 

109. 
Russell,   Earl,  85. 


SACHEVEREL,  Dr.,  24. 

Salem,  Mass.,  first  called  Nehum- 

kek,  107,  124. 
Saltonstall,  Sir   Richard,  31,  115, 

119. 

Savage,  James,  cited,  38,  39,  72. 
Saville,  Sir  Henry,  13. 
Say  and  Sele,  Lord,  69. 
Scottow's  a  Narrative,"  cited,  71, 

86,  87. 

Seaman,  Rev.  Dr.,  25. 
"  Selling  of  Joseph,  The"  (a  tract), 

146. 

Sewall,  Samuel,  143, 146,  147. 
Sharp,  Thomas,  115. 
Sherman,  John,  151. 
Sherman,  Gen.  W.  T.,  150. 
Shurtleff,  Dr.  N.  B.,  30. 
Skelton,  Rev.  Samuel,  33,  36,  37, 

78,  79,  85,  86, 117,  119,  120,  121, 

124,  127. 

Smith,  John,  142. 
Smith,  Rev.  Ralph,  55,  77. 
Sophocles,  10. 

Sparks,  Michael,  quoted,  89. 
Spenser,  Edmund,  13. 
Stedman  and  Hutchinson's  "  Amer- 
ican Literature,"  cited,  96. 


153 


INDEX. 


Sterne,  Dr.  (Master  of  Jesus  Col- 
lege), Ji. 

Sterne,  Laurence,  8. 

Stevenson,  John  Hall,  8. 

Stubbe,  Philip,  12. 

"  Sup  of  New-England's  aire,  a," 
100,  150. 


TAYLOR,  Jeremy,  9,  14. 

Ten   Pound    Island,   landing    on, 

64. 

Terence,  10. 
Thacher,  Rev.  Thomas,  78,  145, 

148. 

Thucydides,  10. 

Tyler,  Moses  Coit,  cited,  14,  131. 
Tyng,  Rev.  S.  H.,  151. 


UPHAM,  Rev.  C.  W.,  cited,  81, 82, 
83,  84,  125,144. 


VASSALL,  Samuel,  116. 

Vassall,  William,    31,    115,    116, 

119. 
Venn,  Captain,  31. 


WATERS,  of  Neyland,  128. 

Webb,  Francis,  119. 

West,  Niko,  115. 

Wheatland,  Dr.  Henry,  137. 

Whetcombe,  Simon,  31,  116,  119. 

White,  John,  69. 

Whitfield,  Rev.  Henry,  142. 

Whitfield,  Sarah,  142. 

Whyte,  John,  116. 

Williams,  Dr.,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 

18,  25. 

Williams,  Roger,  124. 
Winslow,  Edward,  cited,  78. 
Winthrop,  Gov.  John,  38,  71,  115, 

116,  119,  125,  126,  128. 
Winthrop,  John,  Jr.,  71. 
Winthrop,  R.  C.,  cited,  39,  40, 112. 
Wright,  Mr.,  117. 


XENOPHON,  10. 


YOUNG,  Alexander,  cited,  32,  33, 
34,  36,  38»  39,  47,  51,  69>  7*,  7*, 
73,  74,  75,  78,90,107,  125,  132, 
138- 

"  Young  Folks'  Book  of  American 
Explorers,"  cited,  90. 


MAKERS  OF  AMERICA. 


The  following  is  a  list  of  the  subjects  and  authors  so 
far  arranged  for  in  this  series.  The  volumes  will 
be  published  at  the  uniform  price  of  75  cents,  and 
will  appear  in  rapid  succession  :  — 

Christopher  Columbus  (1436-1506),  and  the  Discov- 
ery of  the  New  World.  By  CHARLES  KENDALL 
ADAMS,  President  of  Cornell  University. 

John  Winthrop  (1588-1640),  First  Governor  of 
the  Massachusetts  Colony.  By  Rev.  JOSEPH  H. 
TWICHELL. 

Robert  Morris  (1734-1806),  Superintendent  of  Finance 
under  the  Continental  Congress.  By  Prof.  WILLIAM 
G.  SUMNER,  of  Yale  University. 

James  Edward  Oglethorpe  (1689-1785),  and  the  Found- 
ing of  the  Georgia  Colony.  By  HENRY  BRUCE, 
Esq. 

John  Hughes,  D.D.   (1797-1864),   First  Archbishop  of 
New -York  :   a   Representative   American   Catholic. 
.  By  HENRY  A.  BRANN,  D.D. 

Robert  Fulton  (1765-1815):  His  Life  and  its  Results. 
By  Prof.  R.  H.  THURSTON,  of  Cornell  University. 

Francis  Higginson  (1587-1630),  Puritan,  Author  of 
"  New  England's  Plantation,"  etc.  By  THOMAS  W. 
HIGGINSON. 


2  MAKERS    OF  AMERICA. 

Peter  Stuyvesant  (1602-1682),  and  the  Dutch  Settle- 
ment of  New -York.  By  BAYARD  TUCKERMAN, 
Esq.,  author  of  a  "  Life  of  General  Lafayette, " 
editor  of  the  "  Diary  of  Philip  Hone,"  etc.,  etc. 

Thomas  Hooker  (1586-1647),  Theologian,  Founder  of 
the  Hartford  Colony.  By  GEORGE  L.  WALKER, 
D.D. 

Charles  Sumner  (1811-1874),  Statesman.  By  ANNA 
L.  DAWES. 

Thomas  Jefferson  (1743-1826),  Third  President  of  the 
United  States.  By  JAMES  SCHOULER,  Esq.,  author 
of  "A  History  of  the  United  States  under  the 
Constitution." 

William  White  (1748-1836),  Chaplain  of  the  Continen- 
tal Congress,  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania,  President  of 
the  Convention  to  organize  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  America.  By  Rev.  JULIUS  H.  WARD, 
with  an  Introduction  by  Right  Rev.  Henry  C.  Potter, 
D.D.,  Bishop  of  New- York. 

Jean  Baptiste  Lemoine,  sieur  de  Bienville  (1680-1768), 
French  Governor  of  Louisiana,  Founder  of  New 
Orleans.  By  GRACE  KING,  author  of  "  Monsieur 
Motte." 

Alexander  Hamilton  (1757-1804),  Statesman,  Finan- 
cier, Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  By  Prof.  WILLIAM 
G.  SUMNER,  of  Yale  University. 

Father  Juniper  Serra  (1713-1784),  and  the  Franciscan 
Missions  in  California.  By  JOHN  GILMARY  SHEA, 
LL.D. 

Cotton  Mather  (1663-1728),  Theologian,  Author,  Be- 
liever in  Witchcraft  and  the  Supernatural.  By  Prof. 
BARRETT  WENDELL,  of  Harvard  University. 


MAKERS    OF  AMERICA.  3 

Robert  Cavelier,  sieur  de  La  Salle  (1643-1687),  Ex- 
plorer of  the  Northwest  and  the  Mississippi.  By 
EDWARD  G.  MASON,  Esq.,  President  of  the  Histori- 
cal Society  of  Chicago,  author  of  "  Illinois  "  in  the 
Commonwealth  Series. 

Thomas  Nelson  (1738-1789),  Governor  of  Virginia, 
General  in  the  Revolutionary  Army.  Embracing  a 
Picture  of  Virginian  Colonial  Life.  By  THOMAS 
NELSON  PAGE,  author  of  "  Mars  Chan,"  and  other 
popular  stories. 

George  and  Cecilius  Calvert,  Barons  Baltimore  of 
Baltimore  (1605-1676),  and  the  Founding  of  the 
Maryland  Colony.  By  WILLIAM  HAND  BROWNE, 
editor  of  "  The  Archives  of  Maryland." 

Sir  William  Johnson  (1715-1774),  and  The  Six  Na- 
tions. By  WILLIAM  ELLIOT  GRIFFIS,  D.D.,  author 
of  "  The  Mikado's  Empire,"  etc. ,  etc. 

Sam.  Houston  (1793-1862),  and  the  Annexation  of 
Texas.  By  HENRY  BRUCE,  Esq. 

Joseph  Henry,  LL.D.  (1797-1878),  Savant  and  Natural 
Philosopher.  By  FREDERIC  H.  BETTS,  Esq. 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.  By  Prof.  HERMAN  GRIMM, 
author  of  "  The  Life  of  Michael  Angelo,"  "  The  Life 
and  Times  of  Goethe/'  etc. 

DODD,  MEAD,   &  COMPANY, 

753  and  755  Broadway,  New   York. 


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